IrelandIrish ePrivacy Regulations
Officially S.I. No. 336 of 2011, Confidentiality of Communications
S.I. No. 336 of 2011, reg. 5(1)-(2)
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What follows is LexLint's own research summary of this law, not legal advice.
In force since .
An interception and recording consent rule binding public and private bodies.
As of .
What it requires
- Do not listen to, tap, store, or otherwise intercept or monitor the content or related traffic data of a communication without the consent of the users concerned, unless a legally authorised exception for national security, defence, public security, or the investigation and prosecution of crime applies.
- A recording made in the course of lawful business practice to evidence a commercial transaction or other business communication falls outside this consent duty.
If you get it wrong
Criminal exposureYes
Private right of actionYes
Criminal exposure note
Regulation 5 is not itself an offence provision. The Data Protection Commission may investigate a suspected contravention and, where it forms that opinion, serve an enforcement notice requiring specified steps; only a failure to comply with that notice, without reasonable excuse, is an offence, carrying on summary conviction a class A fine (currently a fine not exceeding 5,000 euro under the Fines Act 2010) and no indictable tier or term of imprisonment.
Who enforces it
Enforcement body
Data Protection Commission, which may investigate a complaint or act on its own initiative and serve an enforcement notice; regulation 5 is not among the regulations the Commission for Communications Regulation monitors under regulation 30.
What it reaches
Obligation class
Consent, Prohibition
What this law does
Drafted with AI from the cited sources under the direction of UnGovr staff. UnGovr holds editorial responsibility for this page.
Regulation 5(1), without prejudice to the separate telecommunications-interception offence in section 98 of the Postal and Telecommunications Services Act 1983 (as amended), prohibits the listening, tapping, storage or other kind of interception or surveillance of a communication and its related traffic data by anyone other than the users, without the users' consent, except where legally authorised for a purpose under Article 15(1) of the ePrivacy Directive.
Regulation 5(2) takes outside that prohibition the technical storage necessary to convey a communication, and any legally authorised recording of a communication carried out in the course of lawful business practice to provide evidence of a commercial transaction or other business communication; the Regulations' own text states no further condition, such as telling the parties in advance, on that business-recording exception.
A breach of regulation 5 is not itself an offence: the Data Protection Commission instead investigates and may serve an enforcement notice, and only a failure to comply with that notice is an offence.
When LexLint raises it
records_conversationsprocesses_voice
Read the law
Irish Statute Book, official text of S.I. No. 336 of 2011
Every line above is drawn from the primary source linked here, read on the date shown. This is a research summary, not legal advice.