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PART 3
Amendment of Act of 2024
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Amendment of Act of 2024
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6. The Act of 2024 is amended by the insertion of the following sections after section 45:
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“Power to impose levies
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45A. (1) The Commission may make an order (in this section referred to as a ‘levy order’) imposing a levy on consumer online platform providers.
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(2) A levy order shall specify the period in respect of which a levy is imposed (in this section referred to as the ‘levy period’).
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(3) Levy periods shall run successively and shall be the same for all levies imposed.
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(4) The Commission shall seek to ensure that the amount of all levies imposed under subsection (1) in respect of a levy period is sufficient to meet the Commission’s expenses properly incurred in that period and its working capital requirements in that period relating to the performance of its functions as the competent authority designated under section 44, in so far as those expenses and requirements are not met in any other way.
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(5) A levy order shall provide for the collection, payment and administration of a levy, including—
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(a) the method of calculation of the levy,
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(b) the times at which payment is to be made and the form of payment,
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(c) requirements for consumer online platform providers subject to the levy to keep relevant records and to make them available to the Commission,
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(d) any provision for exemptions, deferrals or refunds, and
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(e) the consideration of applications by consumer online platform providers for the review of decisions under the order.
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(6) In making provision by levy order for the method of calculation of a levy and for any exemption or deferral, the Commission shall consider the relevance of the following factors:
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(a) the nature and scale of services provided by a consumer online platform provider;
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(b) any other factor that may affect the performance by the Commission of functions in relation to a consumer online platform provider including if that provider has been designated as a very large online platform or very large online search engine under Article 33 and has been charged the annual supervisory fee under Article 43.
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(7) Subject to subsection (3), levy orders may make different provision for different consumer online platform providers.
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(8) Any surplus of income, from levies imposed in respect of a levy period, over the expenses properly incurred by the Commission in that period and its working capital requirements in that period shall either—
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(a) be retained by the Commission to be offset proportionately against subsequent levy obligations of the consumer online platform providers on whom the levy was imposed, or
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(b) be refunded proportionately to those consumer online platform providers.
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(9) In this section, ‘consumer online platform providers’ mean providers of online platforms allowing consumers to conclude distance contracts with traders.
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Levies under section 45A: enforcement and procedure
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45B. (1) A levy payable under a levy order by any person may be recovered by the Commission from that person as a simple contract debt in any court of competent jurisdiction.
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(2) A person shall be guilty of a category 2 offence if, in purported compliance with a requirement imposed by or under a levy order, he or she provides information to the Commission which is to his or her knowledge false or misleading.
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(3) A levy order shall be laid by the Commission before each House of the Oireachtas as soon as may be after it is made and, if a resolution annulling the order is passed by either such House within the next 21 days on which that House sits after the order is laid before it, the order shall be annulled accordingly, but without prejudice to the validity of anything previously done under it.
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(4) In this section, ‘levy order’ has the same meaning as it has in section 45A.
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Arrangement in relation to collection of levies
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45C. (1) The Commission may enter into an arrangement with Coimisiún na Meán in relation to the collection of a relevant levy.
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(2) An arrangement referred to in subsection (1) shall be for the purpose of enabling the Commission or Coimisiún na Meán to collect the relevant levy from each person obliged to pay it and pay over the relevant levy so collected to the Commission or Coimisiún na Meán as appropriate.
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(3) An arrangement referred to in subsection (1) may provide for the costs associated with the collection and payment of the relevant levy concerned to be met by the Commission or Coimisiún na Meán as appropriate.
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(4) Nothing in this section affects any other power of the Commission to enter into an arrangement for the collection of levies.
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(5) In this section, ‘relevant levy’ means a levy payable under—
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(a) a levy order (within the meaning of section 45A), or
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(b) a levy order under section 21 of the Principal Act.”.
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