Competition watchdog drops probe of restaurant body

The Competition and Consumer Protection Commission is no longer investigating the Restaurants Association of Ireland over a no-refund deposit policy on ‘no-shows’ among its members that it believed could have breached competition law

Adrian Cummins, the chief executive of the RAI: the CCPC of having “lost the run of itself” and of “actively targeting small business organisations”.

The state’s competition watchdog has dropped a long-running investigation into potential anti-competitive conduct by the Restaurants Association of Ireland (RAI) without making any findings, the Business Post has learned.

The Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (CCPC) launched a formal investigation into the representative body in November 2018 after it failed to adequately address concerns the watchdog had surrounding what it considered to be an RAI campaign to introduce a non-refundable deposit for restaurant “no-shows”.

The ...