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NOYB added to consumer-action list

Privacy-rights group NOYB, also known as the European Center for Digital Rights, has been designated as a qualified entity (QE) under consumer-rights legislation enacted last year.

Lawyers at Matheson note that the organisation is the second to receive the designation, after the Irish Council for Civil Liberties (ICCL).

The Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment designates QEs under the Representative Actions for the Protection of the Collective Interests of Consumers Act 2023.

Register of QEs

The act, which transposes an EU directive into Irish law, allows groups of consumers in Ireland to take legal action in cases where they believe that their rights have been infringed.

Only designated QEs can take a case to the High Court on behalf of consumers.

The minister is required to keep and maintain a register of QEs, which is available on the department’s website.

In a note on the firm’s website, the Matheson lawyers note that both ICCL and NOYB have also been designated as cross-border QEs, and have been listed as such in the relevant European Commission’s list.

This means that they can take cross-border representative actions elsewhere in the EU. 

Third-party funding

“Despite the number of QEs expanding, both domestically and across the EU, the current restrictions on third-party litigation funding in Ireland remain a potential barrier to the ability of a QE to pursue a representative action in the State,” the Matheson lawyers state. 

Although QEs can charge a fee to consumers seeking to join an action, this is capped at €25.

Matheson says that this is “unlikely to represent a sufficient funding source” unless an extremely large number of consumers are involved.