Digital Rights Ireland has become the third organisation to be designated as a qualified entity ("QE") by the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment (the "Minister") under the Representative Actions for the Protection of the Collective Interests of Consumers Act 2023 (the "Act"). This follows the similar designations of the Irish Council for Civil Liberties ("ICCL") and noyb-European Center for Digital Rights ("noyb") last year (discussed in our previous updates here and here respectively).
A QE acting on behalf of consumers impacted by infringements of prescribed consumer legislation is the only vehicle able to bring a representative action under the Act, which was commenced in April 2024. The register of QEs, which must be kept and maintained by the Minister under the requirements of section 16 of the Act, is available on the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment website here. This now records that Digital Rights Ireland has complied with the designation requirements of section 8(1) of the Act and has been designated as a QE with effect from 3 July 2025.
As well as being designated as a QE for the purpose of bringing consumer representative actions in Ireland, Digital Rights Ireland has also been designated as a cross-border QE and has been listed as such in the relevant European Commission's list. This follows similar designations for ICCL and noyb in 2024. This means that all three Irish QEs are able to take cross-border representative actions elsewhere in the EU.
As we have discussed previously though, the current restrictions on third-party litigation funding in Ireland remain a potential barrier to the ability of any QE to pursue a representative action in the State. Similarly, the fee that QEs are able to charge to consumers seeking to join a representative action is capped in Ireland at a maximum of €25 per consumer per representative action, and so is unlikely to provide a sufficient source of funding save in circumstances where an extremely large number of consumers are impacted.
Digital Rights Ireland is a non-profit organisation that operates on a volunteer basis, having no staff or office. Its website states it is dedicated to defending civil, human and legal rights in a digital age, with its public activism including working with other civil rights groups, including fellow QE, ICCL. The website also notes that, in 2024, it received funding from supporters in amounts of less than €200 per supporter, as well as funding in relation to specific projects relating to litigation from the Digital Freedom Foundation amounting to less than €10,000. Digital Rights Ireland has not commenced any representative actions as of yet.
Although the number of QEs is growing, both domestically and across the EU (there are now a total of 73 cross-border QEs listed in the European Commission's list), there has, to date, only been one consumer representative action commenced in Ireland.
We will continue to monitor for any further developments in this evolving area.
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