AI Act, DGA, Data Act, NISD2 … our Handbook, your map to the EU’s new digital regulation

The recent blizzard of new digital regulation laws from the EU Commission certainly makes the digital highways increasingly treacherous to navigate without a map. Rather than creating a single digital instrument, the EU Commission is pushing through multiple individual pieces of legislation such as the AI Act, DGA, Data Act, NISD2, DMA and about 10 other related instruments. Each addresses an aspect of the digital ecosystem, covering everything from the infrastructure that makes it all happen to the latest products and services provided to end-customers online.

This has allowed these new laws to be passed at speed, but keeping track of what each instrument does, how far down the legislative process it is and how it interfaces with other instruments is a serious challenge.

Our EU Digital Regulation Handbook is here to help. It provides a short, accessible summary of the status of each law and is intended as an initial orientation to this exciting new digital regulatory landscape.

The UK digital landscape post-Brexit

None of these new laws will apply in the UK post-Brexit and, given the current political environment, the UK is unlikely to adopt copycat legislation to mirror changes in the EU. However, our Handbook also tracks UK developments in this area.

In some cases, the UK is still passing laws that replicate aspects of the EU’s new digital package, such as the content regulation obligations in the Online Safety Bill, which partly resemble those in the EU Digital Services Act. In other areas, the UK is taking a markedly different approach, for example by relying on policy initiatives instead of legislation. This is the case for AI, where the UK has issued a pro-innovation AI policy to help co-ordinate the application of existing regulatory principles to artificial intelligence rather than introduce new regulation.

Regardless of any wider efforts by the UK to separate its legal system from that of the EU (including under the Retained EU Law (Revocation and Reform) Bill), the UK is also slowing drifting apart simply by standing still.

This all raises an additional challenge for multinationals that must adapt to this fast-evolving regulatory environment to continue serving their customers in these two important markets, often using global IT infrastructure and services.

The Handbook

The handbook is available here.