Retail Crime in Ireland and the EU

Retail crime as broadly understood within the European Union covers a spectrum of criminal activities and offences. These can range from shoplifting, burglary of retail sector premises, employee theft, payment fraud (using stolen or fake credit/debit cards, or executing return fraud), the selling of counterfeit goods such as fake products that mimic well-known brands.

More organised activities such as large-scale shoplifting operations and the trafficking of stolen goods across EU borders is also part of the definition of what constitutes retail crime.

Generally, the scale of theft is assessed through the application of shrinkage; a measurement system where losses between actual sales and theoretical sales (based on deliveries) are gauged. Shrinkage is the difference between these two figures.

However, given the certainty that shrinkage measurements are affected by administrative and staff errors, retailers must also deduct an estimate for error from shrinkage in order to calculate accurate crime losses.

These errors can include miscalculations caused by mispricing items, incorrect deliveries, or accounting incorrectly for sales items.

Data for 2019 obtained from the Centre for Retail Research shows that prior to an average shrinkage rate of 1.44% being applied, the highest being Italy (1.67%) and the lowest Germany (1.12%), a total loss of $77.618bn was found to have taken place when the combined costs of retail crime in the U.S and Europe were collated.

Once the shrinkage percentage rate was applied however, the total costs for both jurisdictions amounted to $60.673bn.

This is in line with previous surveys on the matter conducted by the International Journal of Retail & Distribution Management.

In one such survey, a self‐report questionnaire was used to discover theft and loss prevention data from 476 major European retailers (23 per cent of West Europe’s retail turnover) in 16 countries.

Losses equivalent to €30,310 million were reported with customer theft emerging as the most important crime cost, followed by employee theft, security costs and supplier theft.

The costs involved are particularly striking within some EU member states.

In 2019 French retailers experienced €6.105 billion in losses. While former member states such as the United Kingdom reported costs of retail crime in region of £4.821 billion in 2019.

It must be noted however that this amount reflected losses caused by cybercrime in addition to shoplifting.

The issue of retail crime has become so prevalent in the UK that its Office for National Statistics (ONS) has had cause to remark that police there are seeing reports of two thefts per minute at stores across the UK.

ONS have further reported that in the year 2019, there were 469,788 offences reported to police, up 29% on the previous years 365,173 and double the number reported in 2020.

The figures were the highest since records started in March 2003, amounting to more than 9,000 offences per week.

The scale of the problem in Ireland, particularly as it relates to co-ordinated and organised shoplifting from retailers has been highlighted by RGDATA – The Retail Grocery Dairy & Allied Trades Association – Ireland’s longest established retail representative association with over 3,500 independent family-owned grocery shops, convenience stores, forecourt stores and supermarkets throughout Ireland.

As part of its 2024 Crime Survey RGDATA highlighted a number of key findings including:

In terms of costs incurred by this criminal activity, the Irish Small and Medium Enterprises Association have stated that retail crime costs Irish retailers an estimated €1.62 billion every year.

The problem can well and truly be described as an emergency as confirmed by The Global Retail Theft Barometer. The Barometer shows that Ireland has the highest cost per capita when it comes to retail crime, significantly more than Iceland and Denmark who are ranked second and third respectively.

As we saw above, while a majority of RGDATA members have signalled dissatisfaction with the adequacy of the police response, it is also worth noting that Ireland’s police force, An Garda Síochána did launch Operation Táirge to address these concerns in December 2023.

As part of this Operation, which proved highly successful, a total of 8,460 arrests and 20,052 charges or summons were recorded between 1 December 2023 and 30 November 2024.

The Operation is also part of An Garda Síochána’s broader Crime Prevention and Reduction Strategy which specifically aims to “reduce the detrimental impact retail crime and criminals can have on retail businesses, and also seeks to support operational activity aimed at detecting and preventing retail theft.”

Retailers in Ireland have also brought their concerns before a number of parliamentary committees, most recently the Joint Committee on Enterprise, Trade and Employment.

During those debates, it emerged that while the financial costs were significant and, in many instances, unsustainable, an increasingly common element associated with shoplifting was physical assaults on staff and management.

This reflects additional data outlined in the RGDATA Crime Survey 2024 which found that a variety of weapons are being used against retailers, including meat cleavers, knives, firearms, iron bars, hatchets, syringes and screwdrivers and well as physical assaults without weapons  such as punches, slaps, spitting and kicks.

At one session of the Joint Committee, Mr Vincent Jennings, the Chief Executive Officer of CSNA (Convenience Stores and Newsagents Association) spoke of how:

“The most worrying aspects of shoplifting today are the accompanying threats, actual violence, obscenities, misogyny and vile racist abuse levelled at owners and staff. There is no doubt but that these abuses are increasing year on year and that they have most certainly become more pronounced after the Covid pandemic. It is impossible to conceive of a more worrying aspect of running a retail business for the majority of our 1,500 members than having to console someone who has been assaulted and abused just for doing his or her job.”

This perspective is reflected by retailers and public facing employers across the EU and while specific statistics on violence against retail staff across all EU countries are not comprehensively collected, the European Working Conditions Survey (EWCTS) in 2021 has indicated that 12.5% of workers experienced adverse social behaviour at work, which includes violence occasioned by shoplifting and retail theft.

In terms of a legislative response to the issues raised by retailers, a private members Bill was introduced by a Government party Senator during the lifetime of the previous Irish Government entitled The Protection of Retail Workers Bill 2024.

This Bill sought to amend the Criminal Justice (Public Order) Act 1994 and to create a specific offence whereby on summary conviction, the person would be liable to imprisonment for a term not exceeding 12 months and/or a fine.

The offences included:

threatening or abusing a retail

worker is committed by a person only if the person—

(a) behaves in a threatening or abusive manner towards the worker, and

(b) intends by the behaviour to cause the worker or any other person fear or alarm or is reckless as to whether the behaviour would cause such fear or alarm, and offences for assaulting or threatening retail workers carrying out their employment.

Unfortunately, the Bill has since lapsed and there is no positive confirmation that it will be reinitiated in the lifetime of the incoming parliamentary term.

Attempts to resolve or prevent the problems associated with retail crime through the increased use of AI and surveillance technology will no doubt generate further debates around adding to an already surveillance heavy environment in many states within the EU.

In fact, while many retailers are turning to AI to assist in crime prevention and detection to significant positive effect, its use brings with it many problems of its own.

Some of these challenges, equally applicable to the EU and Ireland, have been identified by the National Retail Association in Australia in consultation with Queensland Small Business Commissioner, Dominique Lamb, and Crime Consultant, Professor Michael Townsley.

Within the Australian experience, the key downsides were identified as:

It may be concluded then that while the multi-billion-euro costs created by the epidemic of retail crime in Ireland and in the EU is an immediate and ongoing threat to the financial viability of this critically important sector and to the employment environment of an estimated 25.8 million employees working in wholesale and retail trade in the EU, many of the proposed solutions may also generate significant financial and ethical costs of their own which will have to be carefully balanced before they are implemented on a widescale basis.