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Atli Stannard

Atli Stannard advises clients on EU trade law and policy, technology regulation, and the governance of strategically significant industrial sectors, with a particular focus on the geoeconomic forces shaping European regulation, industrial policy, and the transatlantic relationship. Clients describe him as providing “exceptional levels of insight.”

Atli guides clients in highly regulated industries through complex EU policymaking processes, protecting and advancing their core business and regulatory priorities. He is a member of the firm’s Public Policy, International Trade, Sustainability, and Business & Human Rights practices.

Atli’s trade practice covers the full suite of EU trade instruments, including the EU Anti‑Coercion Instrument, trade defence investigations, customs classification and market‑access issues, investment-related tools (FDI and the foreign subsidies regulation), and environmental-related trade tools such as CBAM. He frequently advises on regulatory issues at the intersection of trade and technology—covering platform, data, AI, and competition policy—where digital and geoeconomic considerations converge.

His work also encompasses the EU frameworks governing medical technologies and other strategically important industrial sectors—such as automotive, and food and beverage—and includes supporting clients on environmental and EU ESG policymaking. Across these domains, he helps clients identify regulatory risks early, anticipate institutional dynamics, and build clear, actionable strategies—working closely with them to engage effectively with the European Commission, European Parliament, Council of the EU, and Member State and UK governments.

In recent months, children’s online safety and privacy have moved to the top of the EU’s digital agenda. The European Commission is expected to outline its proposal on minors’ access to social media this week, a potentially significant development that would build on the recommendations of the Commission’s Special Panel on child safety online and mounting pressure from Member States.

The EU is not moving in isolation. Similar debates on minors’ access to online platforms, age assurance, and safety-by-design obligations are emerging in other jurisdictions. These include Australia and the United Kingdom, as well as a rapidly developing patchwork of state-level age-verification, app-store, and device-based age-assurance requirements in the United States.

This post provides a horizon-scanning update on the principal regulatory developments at the EU level, selected national developments, and some relevant developments outside the EU.

Continue Reading Horizon Scan: Children’s Online Safety and Privacy (EU and Beyond)

On 18 March 2026, the European Parliament’s Committee on the Internal Market and Consumer Protection (“IMCO”) and the Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs (“LIBE”) adopted their joint negotiating position on the European Commission’s proposed Digital Omnibus on AI (which we previously analysed here). The position will…

Continue Reading MEPs Adopt Joint Position on Proposed Digital Omnibus on AI