Dublin Airport forced to issue apology for overcharging thousands of car park customers
Over 4,000 motorists were overcharged during 'flash sales'
The Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (CCPC) has welcomed the Dublin Airport Authority's (daa) decision to refund customers who were overcharged during 'flash sales' for car park spaces at Dublin Airport in March and May 2025.
The outcome follows a CCPC intervention, prompted by consumer complaints to its helpline about car park pricing during the flash sales.
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Under the Consumer Protection Act 2007, it is against the law to provide incorrect or misleading information to consumers about price promotions.
The flash sales advertised car parking at a promotional rate of €10 or €12 per day; however, in some cases, airport car parking was priced at a lower rate in advance of and after the promotion.
Consumers who bought promotional parking in these cases were charged more during the sales promotion. In total, consumers were overcharged by just over €25,000. The daa has informed the CCPC that the overpayments were the result of an error on its part.
Affected consumers will now be refunded by daa who have voluntarily committed to refunding consumers the full cost of their booking, resulting in a total of €350,000 being returned to consumers. Refunds will be issued directly to consumers within the next five to 10 days.
Examples of consumer complaints received by the CCPC included:
- A consumer reported that the day before the sale, on 9 March, the price for 10 days’ parking was €83. However, this rose to €110 for the same dates and duration in the sale. The consumer further informed the CCPC that when the sale ended, the price reverted to €83.
- A consumer booked parking for a five-day stay during the sale at a cost of €60, and the price for the same parking was €56 after the sale ended.
Another consumer informed the CCPC helpline that parking for a 12-day stay was priced at €94 during the sale, and it was
- €80 15 days prior to the sale.
Further details on the affected transactions supplied by daa include:
- 14,854 transactions were made during the sales; 4,405 of these transactions resulted in an overpayment.
- The total amount overpaid in those transactions was €25,838 with the average overpayment of approximately €5.90.
- The maximum overpayment in respect of any one payment was €64.
Chair of the CCPC, Brian McHugh said:
“We welcome the swift action taken by daa following contact from the CCPC alerting it to potential breaches of consumer protection laws.
“The CCPC was able to take this action thanks to consumers who took the time to report concerns about misleading sales pricing. All calls to the CCPC helpline are screened for potential breaches of consumer protection law and drive our enforcement and compliance activities.
“The flash sales coincided with the addition of a new competitor in the airport car park market. Active competition among businesses is vital to drive choice, better service and innovation. However, any promotions need to be grounded in real benefits to consumers.”
The daa made a public apology for the mistake on Wednesday morning assuring customers that the matter has been resolved and measures are now in place to ensure it doesn't happen again.
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We want to sincerely apologise to a number of our car park customers who were mistakenly overcharged earlier this year due to a pricing system error linked to a special offer.
"As soon as we became aware of the issue after it was brought to the attention of the Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (CCPC) by customers, we launched a full investigation. We identified the cause of the error and took immediate steps to put things right.
"We are contacting all affected customers directly to offer a full and unreserved apology. Emails will be issued to those customers who were impacted in the next 24 hours. We’re also issuing a full refund which will issue in the next 5 to 10 working days for the entire cost of their booking, along with an additional discount to use on their next car park booking with us.
"The overcharges ranged from €1 to €64, with 90% of those impacted being overcharged by less than €12. Regardless of the amount, we understand that any overcharge is unacceptable, and we’re truly sorry for the inconvenience caused.
"We’ve now resolved the issue and put measures in place to ensure it doesn’t happen again.
"Thank you for your understanding and continued support."