Websites ending in .ie but based outside of Ireland. Should this be illegal?

JackieChang

I'm finding a lot of these websites these days. Currently looking for a car part and it's a minefield. For example on car-parts.ie. I thought I found a good deal only to find that shipping is 30 euro to Ireland? Turns out they're in Germany.

And it's not just car parts, I'm finding these annoying fake Irish sites all over the place.

Aren't there some rules behind being allowed to use a .ie site?

whiterebel

No there isn’t, as Brexit proved.

c montgomery

I bought some camping chairs from a .ie in early August. Free postage advertised with an post logo

Paid via PayPal, when I got the PayPal receipt it had Chinese characters as the seller

Now October and still no sign of them

Gotta be careful out there

Oink

I really wish it feckin was illegal.

Im trying my darnedest to buy local, support Irish first, then the EU.It shouldn’t be so feckin hard to know who you’re giving money to.

Mr321

Seeing this more and more lately so what I do now before I even look at the products is scroll down to the 'contact us' and see where their based.

L1011

That German car parts provider with loads of fake local sounding brands rarely had the stock it claims to have, may suggest unsuitable substitutes and the owner funds the German fat right. Avoid.

Glaceon

All restrictions on .ie were lifted a few years ago so now anybody can register one. As a result, .ie is not longer as reassuring as it used to be. I remember having to send proof of entitlement to the IEDR before that.

TimTom

It's all above board if

they sell goods or services to consumers or businesses in the island of Ireland and can provide evidence of this, such as:

• Sales invoices showing that the domain holder sells goods or services to consumers or businesses in the island of Ireland.
• Signed letter from a third party Solicitor or Accountant or Bank Manager or Auditor, confirming that the domain holder is selling goods or services to consumers or businesses in the island of Ireland, or has serious intention to do so in the immediate future.

deandean

Yes it's a royal pain.

Last week I purchased from "espares.ie".

As far as I was concerned I was buying from an Irish company.

But I got the text message from an post, I had to pay the clearance fee plus VAT to get the item delivered.

It added about 30% extra to the cost of my purchase.

There was no notification of this extra cost at the time of purchase.

whiterebel

You probably shouldn’t have been charged. What did eSpares say?