EU member states were required to implement the 2015 directive into national law by 26 June 2017 and the Commission took action in summer 2018 after Ireland missed the deadline.

The directive was eventually fully transposed into Irish law through the Criminal Justice (Money Laundering and Terrorist Financing) (Amendment) Act 2018, which was commenced in November 2018.

In today’s ruling, the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) said: “Although Ireland did, in the course of the proceedings, put an end to the failure to fulfil obligations complained of, the fact remains that that failure to fulfil obligations existed … with the result that the effectiveness of EU law was not ensured at all times.”

The Commission sought a fine of €2,766,992, though France and Estonia asked the court to impose a smaller fine. The court held that a €2,000,000 fine was necessary for the “effective prevention of future repetition of similar infringements”.