For the first time, the Irish High Court has been asked to make a blocking order in regard to the illegal live streaming of Premier League games. Instead of watching Premier League games through legitimate and licensed services, some people were seeking to do so free of charge. The Court granted the blocking order, requiring five Irish ISPs (including  Eir,  Sky Ireland Ltd, Sky Subscribers Services Ltd, Virgin Media Ireland Ltd  and Vodafone Ireland Ltd…

The Minister for Social Protection, Regina Doherty, and the Minister for Finance, Paschal Donohoe, have informed the government that provision and use of the Public Services Card (PSC), not just by the Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection (DEASP), but by other public bodies shall continue. The DEASP has written to the Data Protection Commission (DPC) advising it of this decision. In doing so, the Government accepts that it may be necessary for the…

The UK Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) has amended its guidance on the time limit for responding to a subject access request (SAR). Under Article 12 GDPR, a data controller must respond to a SAR “without undue delay and in any event within one month of receipt of the request.” This can be extended by a further two months if the request is complex or a number of requests have been made by the data subject.…

The Oireachtas Committee on Justice and Equality is seeking  written submissions from stakeholders on the issues of online harassment, harmful communications and related offences. The invitation follows an announcement last May 2019, that the Government intends to draft, on a priority basis, amendments to the Harassment, Harmful Communications and Related Offences Bill 2017 .  That Bill is based on a 2016 Report by the Law Reform Commission, which recommended reform and consolidation of criminal law offences…

On Friday 16 August 2019, the Data Protection Commission (DPC) published its findings on certain aspects of the Public Services Card (PSC). The DPC found that seven out of eight of its findings were adverse to the positions advanced by the Department of Employment and Social Protection (DEASP) and that there is and has been non-compliance with the applicable provisions of data protection law.…

On 29 July 2019, the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) held​ that Red Bull’s signature blue and silver colour trademarks were invalid. This followed an earlier decision by the General Court of the European Union in 2017 which found that the graphic representation and description of the two colours were not sufficiently precise. The threshold for successfully registering a trademark consisting of a single colour or combination of colours has been…

In the Fashion ID case (C-40/17) , the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) found that the operator of a website that features a plug-in (such as a Facebook ‘Like’ button), can be considered a joint controller with the plug-in provider, in respect of the collection and transmission to that plug-in provider of the personal data of visitors to its website. However the website operator will not be a joint controller or liable for any subsequent processing of…