The Circuit Court has upheld a Workplace Relations Commission decision that XTX Markets Technologies Limited lacked standing to bring a discrimination complaint under the Equal Status Acts. The court decided the preliminary issue of standing; it did not determine whether the alleged discrimination occurred.
Judge John O’Connor heard the issue on 11 July 2024 and delivered judgment on 24 October 2024. The complaint arose from XTX Markets’ allegation that Aviva Investors Liquidity Funds PLC refused to provide it with a service because of its nationality, or imputed nationality, and/or the nationality of its fund or co-CEO and ultimate beneficial owner. Those claims were not decided in this judgment.
XTX Markets argued that the Acts protect “persons” and that the Interpretation Act 2005 definition of a person includes corporate bodies. It also relied on the EU Race Equality Directive and argued for a broad, purposive reading of the legislation.
Aviva argued that the Acts allow a company to be treated as a person that may commit discrimination, but not as a victim entitled to bring a claim. It asked the court to dismiss the complaint for lack of standing.
The WRC adjudication officer had dismissed the complaint on a preliminary basis on 8 November 2023, finding that a private limited company could not have a protected characteristic and that the officer lacked jurisdiction to investigate it. XTX Markets appealed that decision to the Circuit Court.
Judge O’Connor said a company may suffer discrimination, but the question before him was whether a company could bring an action under the Equal Status Acts. He concluded that the Acts, read as a whole, did not give a private company that right. In his view, there was no need to use the Interpretation Act to extend the legislation where the Oireachtas’s intention could be ascertained from the Acts themselves.
The judge held that if the Oireachtas had intended to give private companies a right to sue for discrimination under the Acts, it would have done so in clear and unambiguous terms. He therefore upheld the WRC adjudication officer’s decision and held that XTX Markets lacked locus standi to bring the complaint.
The judgment addresses standing only. It makes no finding on whether Aviva refused the service for the alleged reasons, and it does not grant the other remedies sought in the motion.