EU law
Digital Rights Ireland: Oral Submission to the European Court of Justice on the Data Retention Directive
McGarr Solicitors act for Digital Rights Ireland. The case of Digital Rights Ireland Limited, seeking to challenge Data Retention, reached a significant milestone on the 9th July 2013, when the case was heard before the European Court of Justice in Luxembourg. The ECJ had received a referral from the Irish High Court, asking it to rule on the question of whether the Data Retention Directive (Directive 2006/24, to its friends) was compatible with basic EU laws. You can read the […]
Faulty Beef Burgers
This is the appropriate editorial to replace that of the Irish Times of 2nd February 2013. The blame for Ireland’s faulty beef burgers lies with the relevant Irish meat processors and, maybe, with someone in Poland. The testing of the burgers showed two pertinent facts; the animal source of the burger content and the proportion coming from each animal type. Of the tested burgers, most contained trace elements of horse and/or pig. One did not. That one burger, from Silvercrest […]
The Food Police?
The finding by the Food Safety Authority of Ireland of horse meat in frozen beef burgers invokes the following legal provisions: A) Articles 14 (1) and 16 of Regulation (EC) N° 178/2002 on General Food Law; B) Regulations 5 (1) and 6 of the European Communities (General Food Law) Regulations 2007. Under Article 14 (1) of Regulation No. 178/2002, “Food shall not be placed on the market if it is unsafe”. “Unsafe” includes food unfit for human consumption. The Regulation […]
Sack the Minister
When the Food Safety Authority of Ireland tested a range of Irish frozen beef burgers, purchased from Irish and British supermarkets, it found evidence that they contained horse meat and/or pig meat. It found that the source of the offending meat was the respective manufacturer of the beef burger. In the case of Silvercrest Foods Ltd. almost 30% of one burger constituted horse meat. These facts were sufficient evidence to prosecute the various manufacturers (and the retailers). Prosecutions are necessary […]
Holiday Injuries; is it a Package Holiday?
That means that injuries from food poisoning, or road accidents caused by the negligence of drivers or mechanics are all suitable to be litigated under the 1995 Act, conditional on those services causing the injury being part of the “obligations under the contract”.
Making the SOPA Sausages
Bismark reputedly said that nobody should get too close to the making of laws or sausages. On Thursday, on behalf of the StopSOPAIreland.com campaign, I took a trip to Leinster House, to catch a glimpse of the sausage machine at work. Together with Ian Bergin, who runs the Facebook campaign, and TJ McIntyre of DRI, I met with Catherine Murphy TD to discuss her scheduled exchange of questions with Minister Sherlock. We experienced the minute-by-minute changes of timetables and proposals […]
Access to Justice?
Maybe there’s a necessary correlation between shocking bumbling incompetence (as in the case of sometime EU Commissioner Charlie McCreevy) and a prediliction to patronise. Whatever the case, we see it in the EU Commission plan to “give” a class-action procedural right to EU citizens. Mr. Almunia is in charge of this. He says, confusingly, that; “…only state bodies and certified non-profit organisations would be allowed to bring actions, and that any damages awarded would go entirely to victims and not […]
Goalposts
In January 2010 in Case C-456/08 the European Court of Justice found that Order 84A of the Rules of the Superior Courts was not in accordance with Article 1(1) of Directive 89/665. The Commission had taken proceedings against Ireland over a failure by the National Roads Authority and the terms of Order 84A of the RSC. Ireland lost on both points. The ECJ condemned Order 84A on the grounds it; “..gives rise to uncertainty as to which decision must be […]
Digital Rights Ireland: High Court Submissions
The High Court is seeking submissions from the parties to the Digital Rights Ireland case. See the Pleadings HERE. See the most recent post on the issue HERE The Court is seeking suggestions as to the form of questions to be submitted to the European Court of Justice. DRI has, in its Statement of Claim, suggested a form of question or questions to be submitted. Currently, DRI has furnished its expanded draft of the terms of the Reference to be […]
The Way We Are Now
1. NAMA was set up by the Government expressly for the purposes of paying the “long-term economic value” for bank assets. 2. “Long-term economic value” (“LTEV”) was a notion supplied to the Government by the Commission of the European Union. This writer cannot say from where the Commission derived it, but it is possible the Commission is not “wedded” to the notion, unlike the Irish Government. 3. In the context of the establishment of NAMA, it was insinuated that LTEV […]