By country

Refund Policy Generator Ireland

GDPR under the Data Protection Act 2018, the ePrivacy Regulations 2011, and the DPC as lead authority for much of big tech.

Generate your refund policy Read the refund policy guide

Ireland consolidated its consumer law in the Consumer Rights Act 2022, which restructured remedies for goods, services and digital content into a single hierarchy. A refund policy still quoting the older Sale of Goods framework is describing a repealed regime.

Ireland matters out of proportion to its size because so many multinationals have their EU main establishment there, making the Data Protection Commission the lead supervisory authority under the one-stop-shop. Its decisions set the tone for the whole bloc, and its cookie guidance is among the most detailed published by any authority.

Domestically, GDPR is applied through the Data Protection Act 2018, and cookies are governed by the ePrivacy Regulations 2011 (S.I. 336/2011), which the DPC enforces separately. Its cookie sweep found the usual failures - pre-set non-necessary cookies, implied consent from continued browsing, and reject options that were harder to reach than accept.

Ireland also set the digital age of consent at sixteen, which is at the upper end of the EU range and matters for any consent-based service used by teenagers.

What a refund policy in Ireland has to cover

The fourteen-day cancellation right on distance contracts and how it is exercised
The Consumer Rights Act 2022 remedy hierarchy for goods, services and digital content
The thirty-day right to reject and the short-term remedies that follow it
Return costs split between faulty goods and change of mind
Refund timing and the route to the Competition and Consumer Protection Commission

How Ireland actually moves personal data

EU-wide processing run from Dublin

If your main establishment is Irish, the DPC is your lead authority for cross-border processing - which changes who you notify, who you correspond with, and who you name.

Cookie consent under S.I. 336/2011

The DPC treats a six-month consent lifetime as a reasonable ceiling and expects a reject control on the first layer of the banner.

Transfers to the United States

Post-Schrems II, Irish-established exporters carry the transfer assessment burden that produced the landmark decisions. The Data Privacy Framework covers certified importers only.

Health research and special categories

The Health Research Regulations impose consent and safeguard requirements beyond GDPR for health research conducted in Ireland.

Under-sixteens

With the digital age of consent at sixteen, consent-based services need verifiable parental consent for a wider age band than in most member states.

Third parties the draft will ask you about

Stripe · Realex/Global Payments · An Post · AWS eu-west-1 (Dublin) · Microsoft 365 · Google Workspace · Mailchimp · Salesforce

The rules that apply

GDPR + Data Protection Act 2018

The Irish implementation, including the digital age of consent set at sixteen and restrictions specific to health and research processing.

ePrivacy Regulations 2011 (S.I. 336/2011)

Regulation 5 requires consent before storing or accessing information on a device, enforced by the DPC with its own guidance and sweeps.

The Data Protection Commission

Lead supervisory authority for organisations with an Irish main establishment, and the named complaint route for Irish residents.

Consumer Rights Act 2022

A consolidated Irish consumer regime covering goods, services and digital content, including the fourteen-day withdrawal right and remedies hierarchy.

Online Safety and Media Regulation Act 2022

Coimisiún na Meán oversight for video-sharing and designated online services, layered on top of the Digital Services Act.

What the generated refund policy contains

The statutory right, stated separately
Consumer cancellation rights exist whatever your policy says, so they are set out first and your goodwill terms second.
Time limits and how they are counted
When the clock starts, whether it runs in calendar or working days, and what stops it.
Condition and evidence requirements
What state goods must come back in, and what proof of purchase you accept.
Who pays return postage
Split between faulty and change-of-mind returns, because the law treats them differently.
Refund method and timing
Original payment method, and the deadline you commit to once goods or notice are received.
Exclusions, stated lawfully
Perishables, personalised goods, unsealed hygiene items and downloaded digital content - the exclusions the law actually permits.

Irish compliance essentials

Establish your lead authority position
Document where cross-border processing decisions are taken, because it determines who supervises you.
Configure the banner to DPC guidance
Reject on the first layer, no pre-checked boxes, consent lifetime around six months.
Set the age gate to sixteen
And build a verifiable parental consent route for anyone below it where you rely on consent.
Document transfer assessments
The Irish exporter cases remain the reference point for what an assessment has to engage with.

Where this usually goes wrong

Assuming the DPC is your lead authority without an Irish establishment

The one-stop-shop follows the main establishment, meaning the place where decisions about processing are actually taken - not where a subsidiary is registered.

Cookies set before the banner is answered

The DPC sweep report singled this out, along with banners that treated continued browsing as consent.

Digital age of consent set to thirteen

Ireland uses sixteen. Services that gate at thirteen are non-compliant for Irish teenagers.

Confusing the DPC with the ICO

They are separate regulators under separate statutes. An Irish policy that names the ICO is describing a different legal system.

Frequently asked questions

Is the DPC my regulator if I sell into Ireland?

Only if you have an Irish main establishment. Otherwise Irish residents can complain to the DPC, but your lead authority is wherever your EU main establishment sits - and if you have none, every authority can act.

What is the digital age of consent in Ireland?

Sixteen. Below that, a consent-based information society service needs consent from a parent or guardian.

Do Irish cookie rules differ from GDPR?

They come from a different instrument - the ePrivacy Regulations 2011 - but use the GDPR consent standard. The DPC enforces them directly and has published detailed guidance on banner design.

Can I run a no-refunds policy?

Not against statutory rights. In the UK and EU a consumer’s cancellation and faulty-goods rights apply regardless of what your policy says, and advertising "no refunds" is itself treated as a misleading practice.

Do digital products have to be refundable?

The cancellation right can be waived for digital content, but only if the customer gave express consent to immediate delivery and acknowledged losing the right. That acknowledgement has to be captured at checkout, not assumed.

How long do I have to issue a refund?

In the UK and EU, within 14 days of receiving the goods back or of the customer proving they returned them. Card scheme rules and marketplace policies often impose something tighter.