The High Court has declined jurisdiction over easyGroup’s EU trademark infringement proceedings against two UK companies operating the easyfundraising platform.
Mr Justice Rory Mulcahy set aside an earlier order allowing easyGroup Limited and its Irish subsidiary to serve the proceedings on Easyfundraising Limited and The Support Group (UK) Limited in Britain.
The dispute concerns the EU trademark “easyfundraising.ie”, registered by easyGroup in July 2025. Easyfundraising has operated easyfundraising.org.uk since 2005. Its platform allows UK consumers to shop through participating retailers, with part of the commission earned by the company passed to charities or other good causes selected by users.
The proceedings alleged that the defendants targeted people in Ireland and the EU through the UK website. Because the defendants challenged jurisdiction, the central issue was whether there was enough evidence of such targeting.
The court held that merely making a website or app accessible in Ireland is not enough. At this jurisdictional stage, easyGroup did not need to prove infringement conclusively, but it did need evidence giving rise to a reasonable presumption that active targeting had occurred.
EasyGroup relied on factors including Irish-affiliated retailers and charities appearing on the site, visits from Ireland, downloads of the app in Ireland, social-media templates and a reference in the terms to Irish-issued payment cards.
The defendants pointed to contrary indicators. Their terms required supporters and good causes to be UK-based, charities needed UK bank accounts, advertising was directed to Britain, and only the UK had been selected when the app was made available on Google Play. The court also noted that Irish website traffic and app downloads represented tiny proportions of the total.
Mr Justice Mulcahy found no active conduct targeting Irish or EU consumers. He held that the plaintiffs had not met even the relatively low jurisdictional threshold.
The court therefore set aside the service-out order and declined jurisdiction, with final orders to be addressed on July 30, 2026.