Ireland’s mass actions law ‘significant development’ for consumer protection

The Irish government enacted the “highly anticipated” Representative Actions for the Protection of the Collective Interests of Consumers Act 2023 (32 pages / 496 KB) on 30 April through S.I. No. 181/2024 (3 pages / 89 KB). The Act gives effect in Ireland to the EU’s Representative Actions Directive, which aims to ensure that all EU consumers can protect their collective interests within the EU through representative actions.

The Act allows a collective of consumers to bring ‘representative claims’ against ‘traders’ in the High Court of Ireland through a ‘qualified entity’. The qualified entity, which will be designated as such by the Irish government, will represent the collective of consumers as one in the action and will have all the rights and obligations of a plaintiff prescribed under Irish law.

“Following this significant development, we expect that there may be a substantial increase in the number of mass actions in Ireland,” said Zara West, consumer disputes expert at Pinsent Masons.

A representative action can be raised where consumers claim to have been harmed by a trader through breaches of certain EU consumer laws. The policy areas covered by these laws are wide-ranging, including data protection, financial services, travel and tourism, energy and telecommunications, as well as general consumer law such as rules on unfair contract terms and misleading advertising.

Non-profit consumer organisations, within both Ireland and other EU member states, can now apply to the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment for a designation as a qualified entity. Actions can be domestic as well as cross border, with a notification of cross-border cases to the European Commission required.

In addition to commencing the Act, Ireland’s Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment signed into law prescribed forms regulations and the maximum fee regulations.

The prescribed forms regulations set out the forms to be used in line with the Act, including for applications for designation as qualified entity and for notification by a consumer to be represented by a qualified entity. 

The maximum fee regulations provides the maximum fee of €25 which a qualified entity may charge a consumer requesting to be included in a representative action. Individual consumers involved in a representative action will not be liable for the costs of the proceedings, even if they are unsuccessful.

“Despite the introduction of the Act, the fact that litigation funding remain illegal in Ireland may ultimately be a barrier for some qualified entities to pursue collective redress as envisaged,” said West.