1008. Deputy Mairéad Farrell asked the Minister for Enterprise, Tourism and Employment if his attention has been drawn to the Representative Actions for the Protection of the Collective Interests of Consumers Act 2023, which empowers him to "designate" an "organisation" to act for consumers in a class action to enforce consumer law; if he has designated this position to any organisation; if any organisation has requested to be designated and if he will make a statement on the matter. [60757/26]

The Representative Actions for the Protection of the Collective Interests of Consumers Act 2023 allows consumers to seek collective redress or remedy for an alleged infringement of their consumer rights by traders.

The legislation emerged from the 2015 ‘diesel-gate’ controversy, when Volkswagen was found to have modified its software to give incorrect readings on the pollution emanating from its cars. This affected thousands of consumers across both the EU and the US and clearly highlighted that there was no provision in EU law to allow consumers to take collective action against Volkswagen. At the time, very few Member States had a regime in place to manage collective consumer claims.

The Act is the first legislation of its type in Ireland.

It allows for an organisation that has been designated as qualified entity (QE) to take an action before the High Court in Ireland and before the appropriate bodies in other EU Member States, on behalf of a group of consumers whose consumer rights have been breached, either here in Ireland or in other Member States, by unlawful practices by traders.

A QE is a body representing consumers’ interests and has been designated by me as Minister or by another Member State.

In order to be designated as a QE, an organisation or body must meet specified criteria. The QE must be a legal person with a non-profit character whose main purpose is one that demonstrates that it has a legitimate interest in protecting consumer interests, in addition to meeting other criteria, all of which is set out in the Application Form for Designation as a Qualified Entity.

The Act aims to protect the collective interests of consumers across many areas, like data protection, financial services, travel and tourism, energy and telecommunications, environment, life sciences, healthcare and aviation. The Act applies to both domestic and cross-border infringements.

To date, five organisations have applied to my Department under Section 8 of the Act to be designated as Qualified Entities. The organisations are as follows:

• The Irish Council for Civil Liberties.

• European Centre for Digital Rights (NOYB).

• Digital Rights Ireland.

• Euroconsum E.V.

• Whizzbang E.V.

Their details are recorded on the Register of Qualified Entities, which is maintained by my officials and is available on this Department’s website.