Inline Insights

The Online Safety Bill was introduced in March 2022 to make the UK the ‘safest place in the world to be online’. After a long journey through Parliament, the Bill passed its final parliamentary stages on Tuesday 19 September and was granted royal assent on 26 October 2023, meaning it is now enshrined in law as the Online Safety Act (OSA). However, companies will not have to comply with most of the Act’s provisions immediately. Rather, many details are yet to be set out via secondary legislation and guidance. In this blog post, we take a look at the next steps under the UK’s new online safety regime.   

Once again, the UK has a new Prime Minister. What does this further leadership change mean for the UK’s tech ecosystem and regulatory environment? In this blog, Inline Policy illuminates where a Rishi Sunak premiership could land on issues such as digital competition, data protection, online safety, net zero, artificial intelligence, innovation, and foreign relations.  

The European Union’s Digital Markets Act (DMA) is set to establish a concrete list of dos and don’ts for the world’s biggest digital platforms when operating in the EU. These include hitherto absent ‘ex ante’ regulations to provide more fairness in the area of antitrust issues. Quite simply, the DMA aims to level the digital market’s playing field to ensure that smaller firms can operate under fairer competition.

Liz Truss is the new UK Prime Minister. Her premiership is likely to mean broad continuity with the previous government’s tech policy of making the UK a technology superpower, but with a renewed focus following the drift of the last few months of the Johnson premiership. This offers opportunities for tech firms, but they should be alert for a possible deterioration in UK-EU relations. In this blog we explore the impact of the new administration on the key tech policy areas.

The Online Safety Bill is the UK Government’s flagship piece of digital regulation, the British equivalent of the EU’s Digital Services Act. Prior to Boris Johnson’s resignation and the ensuing fallout, there were hopes that the bill would clear the House of Commons before parliamentary recess began on 22 July 2022. However, due to the distractions caused by the Prime Minister’s resignation, the bill still has several parliamentary stages before it becomes law , and could face further revision, depending on which one of Liz Truss or Rishi Sunak becomes the next Prime Minister. In this blog, Inline asks: what next for the Online Safety Bill?

The three EU institutions - Commission, Parliament and Council of the EU - reached a provisional agreement on the Digital Services Act, (DSA) on 22 April 2022. In this briefing we highlight its main provisions and their implications for companies, particularly regarding compliance and future regulatory ramifications.

Inline’s previous blog explored the UK Government’s aspirations for the technology and digital sectors and its legislative plans to make the UK a global leader in the space. In this blog, we look at the organisations responsible for regulating the UK’s tech sector, focusing on their powers and for which areas they have responsibility. We highlight some of the regulatory issues that these regulators are dealing with and which we advise tech companies should monitor.

As explained in our previous blog, the European Commission is working on a legislative proposal to ensure European businesses, consumers and governments fully benefit from the free flow of data and are empowered to make better-informed decisions. This initiative, known as the Data Act, will not only regulate data sharing among companies (business-to-business, B2B), but will also specify in which cases and under which conditions companies must share data with governments (business-to-government, B2G). This blog analyses the EU’s plans for the B2G data sharing and identifies outstanding issues for businesses.

In 2025, the value of the data economy in the European Union will be comparable to the GDP of the Netherlands. The actual impact that data will have on European economies and societies, however, will depend as much on technological advancements as on the rules that will govern data use and data sharing. In February 2022, the European Commission is expected to publish a proposal for a Regulation to facilitate data sharing and use between companies (business-to-business, or B2B) and between businesses and governments (business-to-government, or B2G). Known as the Data Act, this long-awaited initiative will have far-reaching impacts on companies, the public sector, and consumers. In this two-part series, we look at what issues the Data Act should address to harness the value of data while ensuring innovation, property rights, and privacy. This blog focuses on business-to-business data-sharing.

The European Union’s Digital Services Act (DSA), currently working its way through the legislative process, will create an unprecedented set of new rules for intermediary service providers. The legislation will establish a framework for content moderation and reinforce the rules for platforms that should serve to further protect the fundamental rights of all users of digital services across Europe. This blog looks at the DSA’s progress and the positions recently taken by the European Parliament and the Council of the EU. We explore how they are seeking to re-shape the original proposal and what this means for businesses and consumers.

Our work, education, social interactions, and leisure time take place online more than ever before. Every day enough people to populate a city the size of Frankfurt join the World Wide Web, bringing digital technologies to new users. COVID-19 has increased reliance on technologies such as Zoom, Microsoft Teams, Google Classroom, Netflix and e-commerce platforms.

The UK Government has published a draft Online Safety Bill for pre-legislative scrutiny. This marks the start of a lengthy legislative process likely to be full of lively debate. In this blog, Nicolette Stickland outlines the next steps and some areas of the Bill likely to attract scrutiny by Parliamentarians.

Few policy areas fit neatly within the remit of one regulatory authority or government department. Online advertising is no different. Earlier this year, we evaluated proposals by DCMS and the UK’s competition regulator to regulate digital marketing. Building on this jigsaw of stakeholders, we examine the latest strategies developed by another critical policymaking actor - the Advertising Standards Authority – and its recent efforts to defend what was historically its territory.

The European Union is working on a new regulatory framework for artificial intelligence that seeks to ensure better consumer protection, while enhancing Europe’s technological competitiveness. The risk is for it to become but a duplication of already-existing practices and regulations.

The European Parliament has resumed its work after the summer break and the 2019-2024 term will include a range of policy areas impacting the digital economy. Download Inline Policy's free updated guide to the new Parliament and the people and issues matter for the tech sector.

Under long-standing EU rules online service providers enjoyed liability exemptions in many instances, but concerns about developments in the digital economy have led the European Commission to question these exemptions and consider new rules.

The Finnish Government's work programme for its Presidency of the Council of the EU includes important positions on EU technology policy, platform regulation, the digital economy, Mobility-as-a-Service and digital taxation. Our briefing document outlines the implications for the tech sector.

Finland’s Presidency of the Council of the EU begins on 1 July and presents opportunities for the tech sector to engage with policymakers in a broadly pro-technology Member State who will be in a leadership role over the six-month presidency.

Data portability rules in GDPR do very little to alter the balance of power in the digital economy. Could a shift to an economy based on data mobility give individuals true control over their personal data, tackle antitrust concerns around big tech, and strengthen workers in the gig economy?

The 2019 European elections mark a pivotal movement for the European Union and the tech sector. Download Inline's free guide to the election results and the implications for the tech sector.