CCPC publishes full legal determination regarding its decision to block daa’s purchase of Dublin airport car park

July 3, 2024

In March 2024, the Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (CCPC) blocked the sale of a car park near Dublin Airport to daa due to concerns that the deal would lead to higher prices and lower service quality for consumers.

Daa had proposed to buy a car park located on the Swords Road in Santry from Mr Gerard Gannon. The car park had previously been leased to QuickPark before closing in September 2020 during the Covid-19 pandemic.

Daa currently owns and operates 68% of all possible car parking space serving Dublin Airport. The car park daa was seeking to purchase formed 22% of the total car park spaces available at Dublin Airport. As daa would not face competition for customers from any other large car park providers, this would have harmful consequences for consumers.

Today, the CCPC has published the full 300 page determination detailing the extensive investigation which began in March 2023 and ran until March 2024.

Brian McHugh Chair of the CCPC said:

“If the privately owned QuickPark carpark at Dublin airport had been sold to daa that would have given them 90% of the market. Clearly that level of market share is bad for consumers. Our investigation showed that daa responded to competition from QuickPark and that prices were kept competitive as a result. We also found evidence of a number of credible potential buyers, all of whom intended to operate the site as a carpark. For the benefit of consumers, we would like to see the car park re-opened as soon as possible.”

You can read the full determination for more details.

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