Inline Insights

Sweden assumed the Presidency of the Council of the EU on 1 January and presented its policy programme on Tuesday 17 January to the European Parliament. The programme focuses on competitiveness, security, rule of law and sustainability. In this article, we examine the digital and sustainable priorities outlined in the programme. The Swedish Presidency is expected to drive progress in areas such as cyber security, data sharing, digital identity, and sustainability.

Sweden assumed the Presidency of the Council of the EU on 1 January and presented its policy programme on Tuesday 17 January to the European Parliament. The programme focuses on competitiveness, security, rule of law and sustainability. In this article, we examine the digital and sustainable priorities outlined in the programme. The Swedish Presidency is expected to drive progress in areas such as cyber security, data sharing, digital identity, and sustainability.

The European Commission has proposed new rules providing compensation for damage caused by AI systems. Below, we summarise the two key instruments which users and providers of AI systems will need to comply with.

Chancellor of the Exchequer Jeremy Hunt has published his Autumn Statement, outlining the UK Government’s fiscal policies for the next five years. The statement includes a number of measures of interest for the tech sector, which we summarise below.

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?

Last week, EU and US policymakers met in Paris to discuss trade and technology related issues. Despite some progress on Russia, trade, and sustainability, the two sides remain far apart on the question of how to regulate Big Tech.

The Queen’s Speech on 10 May 2022 outlines all the Bills that the Government intends to introduce in the new Parliamentary session. It includes substantial tech policy reforms in areas in which the UK is diverging from EU policy for the first time. While there are various initiatives, they can broadly be categorised as, first, pro-innovation and pro-competition measures, and secondly, changes to improve the protection of consumers of tech. Here we take you through the main proposals.

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.

As the European Union seeks to achieve zero-emission road transport in cities, we explore what proposals on infrastructure, multi-modal travel and mobility data mean for passengers, industry, and other stakeholders.

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.

With the terms of the UK’s exit from the EU largely settled, the UK Government has begun to turn its attention to what it wishes to do with the powers that have been repatriated from the European Union. This blog explores the Government’s aspirations for the technology and digital sectors and its legislative plans to make the UK a global leader in this area.

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.

In recent years, artificial intelligence (AI) has become embedded in many of the processes of business operations, public life, and politics. Yet as AI is increasingly becoming a part of people’s lives, suspicions have mounted as to whether AI is a force for good, or whether its algorithms create bad outcomes for some of those on the receiving end of its calculations. In a 2020 survey by KPMG, only 26% of UK citizens were willing to rely on information provided by an AI or to share data with an AI. To combat the festering mistrust in AI, the UK Government published its novel Algorithmic Transparency Standard in late November 2021. This blogpost introduces the standard, evaluates its potential, and points to the questions which remain open.

Governments across the world are working towards an energy transition for phasing out fossil fuels and meeting emissions targets. Sustainable energy technologies play an increasingly pivotal role in making this happen. We look at how the UK Government’s policies foster the development of technologies in the wind energy industry and how emerging technologies are driving efficiencies and reducing costs in this sector.

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.

This month, the UK’s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) updated its ambitious Digital Markets Strategy. The 2019 strategy was originally meant to address the growth of digital markets and its effect on consumers and competition. The recent update reflects the work that the CMA has done since it first published the strategy - including its all-important recommendations for a pro-competition regime for digital markets - and comes as debates around digital competition continue to gather pace in the UK and beyond.