Ireland fined €3m by EU courts for delay to online safety law

The European Court of Justice

Sarah Collins

The Government has been fined at least €3m by the EU’s highest court for delaying the introduction of new rules on streaming services, online safety and hate speech.

A further fine of €30,000 will now be applied for every extra day the law is not in place.

The penalty is due to a failure to meet a September 2020 deadline for implementing the EU’s updated Audiovisual Media Services Directive (AVMSD).

The directive sets a 30pc quota for European content on streaming services, creates new online protections for children, and anti-hate speech rules that apply to video-sharing platforms such as YouTube and TikTok. It also strengthens national media regulators.

The law was was adopted in 2018 and guidelines on implementation were published two years later. The European Commission sent warnings letters to Ireland in November 2020, September 2021 and November 2021, telling the Government it was in breach of EU law.

At the time the case was taken, Ireland’s online safety and media regulation bill was still making its way through the legislative process. It was finally adopted in December 2022. Coimisiún na Meán, Ireland’s media regulator, began work last year.

Ireland was not the only EU country to be given a warning. Most EU member states failed to bring the rules into place in time, and the Czech Republic, Romania, Slovakia and Spain were also warned they could face fines. However, the European Commission appears to have made an example of Ireland, as so many tech companies have their headquarters here.

“Ireland is the EU member state where the largest number of VSPs [video sharing platforms] are established,” the European Court of Justice said on Thursday.

“The Court finds that Ireland failed to fulfil its obligations under EU law, by neglecting to adopt the legislative, regulatory, and administrative provisions necessary to comply with the directive by the deadline set out by the Commission, and by failing to communicate these provisions to the Commission.

“The Court also finds that Ireland has persisted in this failure, as it was not remedied by the day of the examination of the facts by the Court.”

The €3m payment must be made to the European Commission, the court ordered.

The daily €30,000 payment applies from today, Thursday, “until Ireland has put an end to its infringement”.