Consumer Representative Actions - Legislation Passed

The Representative Actions for the Protection of the Collective Interests of Consumers Bill 2023 (the "Bill") has, as of yesterday, 4 July 2023, been passed by both Houses of the Oireachtas and now awaits being signed into law by the President. Whilst various technical amendments were made to the legislation during the debates, the Bill has not been substantively changed from the draft initiated in the Dáil.

As we have discussed in our previous updates (available here and here), the Bill, once signed into law, will give effect in Ireland to the EU Representative Actions Directive (the "Directive"). This is a significant milestone as it will provide, for the first time in Ireland, for collective domestic and cross-border actions to be taken on behalf of impacted consumers in relation to infringements of a wide range of EU consumer protection legislation.