Financier Worldwide: Unlocking Irish Consumer Representative Actions – Does Third-Party Funding Reform Hold the Key?
Commercial Litigation and Dispute Resolution partner Julie Murphy O’Connor and professional support lawyers, Tina Turner and Róisín Peart, recently co-authored an article for Financier Worldwide’s “Managing and Resolving Commercial Disputes eBook, 2024 Edition”, published in partnership with the International Centre for Dispute Resolution (ICDR).
The article considers recent developments in relation to consumer collective actions, including the enactment of the Representative Actions for the Protection of the Collective Interests of Consumers Act 2023 (the "Act") on 2 July 2023, which transposed the EU Representative Actions Directive.
The article also discusses why it will still likely be some time before representative actions take off in Ireland, including the question of funding in light of the continuing prohibition on third-party funding of litigation in Ireland.
To read the Financier Worldwide article in full you can click here where you can sign up for free access.
Since the article was published, the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment has published regulations commencing the Act, prescribing certain forms relating to the designation of Qualified Entities and prescribing the maximum fee that may be charged to consumers seeking to join a representative action. You can read more about those new regulations in our recent Matheson Insight here.
If you wish to discuss in more detail please contact Julie Murphy O’Connor or any member of our Commercial Litigation and Dispute Resolution team.