Key team members: George Roberts — general counsel and compliance officer; Jennifer O’ Sullivan — legal counsel; Johnny Thorpe — data protection manager; Eleanor O’ Dwyer — compliance manager.

What are the most significant cases or transactions that your legal team has recently been involved in?

We have primarily been involved in legal and compliance. By way of background, we are a shared legal and compliance service. Our team is shared between Volkswagen Group Ireland (VGIE) and Volkswagen Financial Services Ireland (VWFSIL). Our motto is to be ‘an enabler for the business, providing pragmatic trusted advice to facilitate compliant, ethical and sustainable commercial growth’. Our team comprises a general counsel and compliance officer, a legal counsel, a data protection manager and a compliance manager. The team also has an intern from Dublin City University and a trainee solicitor from a panel law firm. We aim to create synergies, reduce costs and share information. Some examples in which we achieve this are through joint procurement, joint litigation, shared legal panel law firms and joint projects such as rental car, fleet and dealer initiatives.

The most significant work we do in VGIE comprehends the importing of the following VW Group brands: Volkswagen Passenger Cars, Volkswagen Commercial Vehicles, AUDI, Seat, CUPRA and Skoda in Ireland. Our work involves advising on litigation, commercial contracts, software licensing, data protection, advertising and standards, product liability, trademarks, employment law, corporate governance, and competition law.

Some of the recent highlights of our work with VGIE concern retail sales through assisting the business in growing the sale of Battery Electric Vehicles (BEV) in Ireland. Volkswagen is the biggest seller of BEV and PHEV (plug-in) vehicles in Ireland, with the ID4 being the most popular model. Volkswagen Passenger Cars expect continued growth for BEVs during 2023. It has a year-to-date market share of 26.4% and anticipates BEV sales in line with the overall market next year. Volkswagen Commercial Vehicles expects a 300% increase to 220 electrified vehicles next year. The legal team also assisted in marketing our vehicles with the ad agency The Daring Boys and Girls, the award-winning ‘Made for Ireland’ campaign. Additionally, we supported the sponsorship of events and several partnerships, including the Skoda Celtic series and the Three Arena/CUPRA.

VWFSIL is a Retail Credit Firm (RCF) regulated by the Central Bank of Ireland (CBI), offering financial services for customers of VW Group brands in Ireland, among others. Most of our work involves advising on litigation, financial regulation law; wholesale lending; insurance intermediary status, debt collection and the company secretary function.

Recent highlights of our work with VWFSIL include financing vehicle sales in Ireland through selling to retail and business customers.

What has been the number one challenge that has impacted you over the past year?

The number one challenge over the past year has undoubtedly been VWFSIL becoming regulated by the CBI through the introduction of the Consumer Protection Act 2022. This demonstrates a continued focus on consumer protection, specifically in retail lending. The principal purpose of the Act is to close a gap in the consumer protection regulatory framework regarding consumer HP and PCP and other forms of indirect credit. The Consumer Credit Act 1995 (1995) applies to all credit agreements, HP agreements and consumer-hire agreements to which a consumer (a person acting outside the person’s business or those declared to be a consumer under the 1995 Act) is a party. In addition, the Act amends the 1995 Act such that it applies to a person who has invited, by way of advertisement, consumers to avail themselves of credit without payment of interest or any other charge. The 1995 Act is also amended to introduce a cap of 23% on the annual percentage rate of commission (APR) regarding credit agreements and HP agreements.

Further, the 1995 Act was amended to introduce a requirement where an HP agreement is entered into after 16 May 2022. The agreement must contain an APR statement. The CBI also extended the scope of the Consumer Protection Code 2012, the Minimum Competency Code 2017 and the Minimum Competency Regulations 2017 to include these new activities.

Has the increasing consciousness of climate change and sustainability affected your company and the team’s priorities, and if so how?

To retain talent, remain competitive and flourish as an organisation, being an accountable business in regard to the environment and work environment and not only financial performance is a strategic goal for our company. For Volkswagen, sustainability means pursuing economic, social, and ecological objectives simultaneously and with equal energy. We aim to create lasting values, offer good working conditions, and conserve resources and the environment. With our sustainability concept, we want to ensure that opportunities and risks associated with our environmental, social and governance (ESG) activities are identified as early as possible at every stage of the value-creation process. In keeping with this aim, we are determined that our corporate social responsibility (CSR) activities will have a lasting, positive impact on Volkswagen’s value and reputation.

Sustainability in Volkswagen means decarbonisation, a circular economy, people in transformation, diversity, integrity, and being responsible for business and the supply chain.