Data protection
- Data protection is about your fundamental right to privacy as a citizen and consumer. Under data protection laws you have rights and protection if information kept about you is:
- Wrong or out of date
- Given to someone not entitled to see it
- Used to put you on a mailing list for "junk mail" or spam, or you find yourself receiving annoying calls from telephone marketing people
- Used to threaten your privacy in more serious ways
You are entitled to personal information about you that is held on computers and in filing systems. You can request this information from people such as your bank, credit reference agencies, your doctor, government departments dealing with your affairs, or your employer.
If the information is wrong, you have the right to have it corrected - or possibly even erased.
Read more about data protection on the website of the Data Protection Commissioner.
Denied boarding
This is where you cannot get on your flight even though you checked in on time, because the airline has sold more tickets than seats on the aircraft.
The reason airlines do this is because they don't want to end up with empty seats. But if too many passengers do turn up on time, the airline has a problem. And so too have would-be passengers.
Under EU regulations, you have various rights and entitlements if denied boarding.
Read a guide about denied boarding on the Commission for Aviation Regulation's website
Deposit
A sum of money paid in advance of a full deal being concluded for goods or services.
A deposit may not be refundable so always check in advance with the trader.
Description
The description of goods and services you buy is important in terms of several key pieces of consumer legislation.
Anything you buy from a retailer has to fit its description, whether this is part of the advertising or wrapping, on a label, website or even something said by the salesperson.
But if goods are described as "seconds" or "shop-soiled", you cannot expect the same standard. The standards are also lower when buying second-hand goods - but these goods still have to fit their description.
Suppliers of services may try to limit their responsibility in some way, such as in exclusion clauses. But clauses of this kind are only valid if they are specifically brought to your attention (and only if they are fair and reasonable).
Consumer legislation covers false or misleading descriptions of goods, services and prices in many areas, from adverts to catalogues, websites, pictures on product packaging, price labels and how the salesperson described the product.
Other organisations such as the Advertising Standards Authority and Broadcasting Complaints Commission also monitor how goods and services are described in commercial advertisements or programmes.
Distance contract
This is a specific type of contract between a consumer and a seller, where they are not physically present together. It covers transactions such as shopping from home by mail order, fax or telephone, or when you order consumer goods or services online from home or work.
Your rights as a consumer do not disappear just because you are making purchases on a website or via a phone. In fact your distance contract with the retailer includes various additional rights.
These include the right to return the goods or cancel the service - without having to give a reason - within a certain cooling off period. The retailer cannot charge you anything (for instance penalties), apart possibly from the cost of returning the goods. Certain exclusions apply - see our guides to shopping from home.
Download cap
Broadband isn't charged like telephone dial-up Internet accounts - the time you spend online is irrelevant. But broadband providers usually put some restrictions in place about how much material you can download directly, after which they place a supplementary charge (for instance 4 cent for every further megabyte downloaded).
So watch out for this download cap in the small print - it is usually monthly and given in gigabytes (GB).
Some wireless broadband services operate a 'fair usage' policy instead of download caps. If you are downloading huge amounts of data around the clock, they may intervene and caution you. Check to see if this is covered in the terms and conditions of your agreement with them.