How can service providers notify an 'addressee'?

Home

Under the e-Evidence Package, service providers offering relevant services in the European Union must appoint a “designated establishment” or “legal representative” who will be legally responsible for receiving and responding to requests from law enforcement and judicial authorities for electronic evidence. The “designated establishment” or “legal representative” This is known as an “addressee”.

Requests for electronic evidence will be made via a European Production Order or a European Preservation Order as set out in the e-Evidence Regulation. These e-Evidence orders will be sent to the addressee through a ‘Decentralised IT System’ operating across the EU. Service providers are required to adequately resource their addressee so they can respond to and comply with e-Evidence orders within the statutory time limits.

For more information on the role of the addressee under the e-Evidence package, or if you are unsure whether you are a service provider under the e-Evidence Package, please see the “FAQ” page and Directive (EU) 2023/1544.

The Criminal Justice (International Cooperation on Electronic Evidence and Other Matters ) Act 2026, which transposed the e-Evidence Directive, requires service providers to register an addressee by18 August 2026. For service providers who begin offering services in Ireland or the EU after 10 August 2026, they are required to designate an addressee within 6 months from the date they begin offering such services.

That Act also requires that service providers established or offering services in Ireland must notify the Office of the Director of Criminal Justice International Cooperation of their addressee, their contact details and certain other information.

This notification is facilitated through completion of the European Commission’s online ‘Notification Form for Service Providers’ (“Notification Form”). Please see information below on how to complete the Notification Form.

1. An EU login account is required in order to access the Notification Form. If you do not have an EU login account, please follow the European Commission’s step-by-step user guide to create one.
2. You will need the following information to complete the Notification Form:

a) Information about the Central Authority: The competent central authority in the Member State in which you wish to designate your addressee. In Ireland, this is the ‘Office of the Director of Criminal Justice International Cooperation’)

b) Information about your company/organisation: Registered company name, contact details, company registration number, corporate structure and types of services offered in the European Union.

Note: When inputting your company contact details (email and contact number), please ensure these details are correct.

c) Information about your Designated Establishment/Legal Representative: Contact details (including emergency contact and technical assistance contact), the official language(s) accepted for communication purposes, and which legal instrument(s) your addressee will be responsible for.

Note: Service providers can designate an addressee in Ireland for the receipt of European Production Orders and European Preservation Orders and Mutual Legal Assistance Requests only.

Service providers can not designate an addressee in Ireland for European Investigation Order (EIO) Directive 2014/41/EU, as Ireland is not currently opted in to this Directive.

Service providers must designate an addressee in another EU Member State for the purposes of receiving orders under the EIO Directive.

d) Information about Available Data: information on the types of data applicable to each service offered - category of data, identifiers, period of availability. Service providers can also add any additional information on the services they offer and the associated data.

e) Technical information: the type of connection which will be used to connect to the IT system (access to the web-based interface will be provided to the addressee. An option to request connection via API is also available to select )

3. Once you have completed the online Notification Form, you will be required to download, digitally sign and re-upload a PDF version of the form, before you can submit it.

4. Once you have submitted your Notification Form, you will receive an automated email to the email address provided confirming that your submission has been sent. Please take note of the information in that email, including the ‘Form Number’

5. The Notification Form will be subject to validation by the Office of the Director of Criminal Justice International Cooperation. As part of this validation process, your company may be contacted to verify the information provided on the Notification Form.

6. Once the information has been confirmed as accurate and the details provided have been verified, the Notification Form will be accepted. It will be stored on a central database managed by the European Commission (known as the ‘CDB’ or Court Database) and will be used by Issuing Authorities across the EU when issuing e-Evidence orders.

7. The Office of the Director of Criminal Justice International Cooperation will contact the service provider and addressee to confirm that the Notification Form has been accepted and will provide further details on how to access the IT system.

For more information on this process and a step-by-step guide on how to use the Notification Form for Service Providers, please see the EU Commission’s User Guide.