Sir, – If you think tech companies suing the State in Irish courts is as bad as it gets, think again (“Sue, sue, sue: How Big Tech is taking on the regulators”, February 9th).
Martin Wall notes that tech giants including Elon Musk’s X, following the lead of tobacco and pharmaceutical companies, are repeatedly suing State bodies for trying to regulate them and enforce the law. At least these challenges take place in Irish courts, with transparent procedures and published judgments.
While this is happening, the Irish Government is moving legislation through the Oireachtas that could enable such companies to take these challenges out of the Irish legal system, and into a parallel, private system of so-called “investor courts”. These opaque, closed tribunals lack the transparency, accountability and public-interest safeguards of national legal systems, yet have the power to award billions of euro in damages against governments where public-interest regulation is alleged to threaten companies’ potential future profits.
The Arbitration (Amendment) Bill would enable Ireland to give effect to the Investment Court System (ICS) provisions of the EU-Canada trade deal, Ceta. While the Government argues this is necessary to facilitate trade between Canada and the EU, as a model for future agreements this is deeply misleading. The trade provisions of Ceta are already in place, and trade between the two countries continues to grow. What is at question is whether disputes between hugely powerful private companies and the Government ought to be decided in national courts with adequate standards and transparency, or in a quasi-judicial system away from the public eye.
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This concern is not merely academic or technical. In 2024 Exxon Mobil used similar provisions to take a case against the Dutch government, demanding billions for its decision to phase out gas exploration. In Tanzania a Swedish investor sued the government after a sugar plantation failed to get off the ground, and won a payout of more than three times its original investment. All over the world, private companies have sought billions in compensation when decisions taken in the clear public interest – on housing, healthcare, the environment and climate – have threatened their current or potential future profits.
The Government faces a slew of costly legal challenges from tech giants pushing back against regulation and enforcement of the law. Signing up to Ceta’s ICS system would be a gift to such companies, and make it even harder to stand up for public interest over corporate power. – Yours, etc,
EVIE CLARKE,
Co-ordinator of the Irish Coalition for Business and Human Rights,
Dublin 2.
