Although the final text of the EU AI Act should enter into force in the next few months, many of its obligations will only start to apply two or more years after that (for further details, see our earlier blog here). To address this gap, the Commission is encouraging industry to take early, voluntary steps to implement the Act’s requirements through an initiative it is calling the AI Pact. With the upcoming European elections on the horizon, the Commission on 6 May 2024 published additional details on the AI Pact and encouraged organizations to implement measures addressing “critical aspects of the imminent AI Act, with the aim of curbing potential misuse” and contributing “to a safe use of AI in the run-up to the election.”Continue Reading European Commission Calls on Industry to Commit to the AI Pact in the Run-Up to the European Elections
Lisa Peets
Lisa Peets is co-chair of the firm's Technology and Communications Regulation Practice Group and a member of the firm's global Management Committee. Lisa divides her time between London and Brussels, and her practice encompasses regulatory compliance and investigations alongside legislative advocacy. For more than two decades, she has worked closely with many of the world's best-known technology companies.
Lisa counsels clients on a range of EU and UK legal frameworks affecting technology providers, including data protection, content moderation, artificial intelligence, platform regulation, copyright, e-commerce and consumer protection, and the rapidly expanding universe of additional rules applicable to technology, data and online services.
Lisa also supports Covington’s disputes team in litigation involving technology providers.
According to Chambers UK (2024 edition), "Lisa provides an excellent service and familiarity with client needs."
EU Parliament Adopts AI Act
Earlier this week, Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) cast their votes in favor of the much-anticipated AI Act. With 523 votes in favor, 46 votes against, and 49 abstentions, the vote is a culmination of an effort that began in April 2021, when the EU Commission first published its proposal for the Act.
Here’s what lies ahead:Continue Reading EU Parliament Adopts AI Act
EU AI Act: Key Takeaways from the Compromise Text
On February 13, 2024, the European Parliament’s Committee on Internal Market and Consumer Protection and its Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs (the “Parliament Committees”) voted overwhelmingly to adopt the EU’s proposed AI Act. This follows a vote to approve the text earlier this month by the Council of Ministers’ Permanent Representatives Committee (“Coreper“). This brings the Act closer to final; the last step in the legislative process is a vote by the full European Parliament, currently scheduled to take place in April 2024.
The compromise text approved by Coreper and the Parliament Committees includes a number of significant changes as compared to earlier drafts. In this blog post, we set out some key takeaways.Continue Reading EU AI Act: Key Takeaways from the Compromise Text
European Commission Announces New Package of AI Measures
On January 24, 2024, the European Commission (“Commission”) announced that, following the political agreement reached in December 2023 on the EU AI Act (“AI Act”) (see our previous blog here), the Commission intends to proceed with a package of measures (“AI Innovation Strategy”) to support AI startups and small and medium-size enterprises (“SMEs”) in the EU.
Alongside these measures, the Commission also announced the creation of the European AI Office (“AI Office”), which is due to begin formal operations on February 21, 2024.
This blog post provides a high-level summary of these two announcements, in addition to some takeaways to bear in mind as we draw closer to the adoption of the AI Act.Continue Reading European Commission Announces New Package of AI Measures
Draft Delegated and Implementing Acts Pursuant to the Digital Services Act
From February 17, 2024, the Digital Services Act (“DSA”) will apply to providers of intermediary services (e.g., cloud services, file-sharing services, search engines, social networks and online marketplaces). These entities will be required to comply with a number of obligations, including implementing notice-and-action mechanisms, complying with detailed rules on terms and conditions, and publishing transparency reports on content moderation practices, among others. For more information on the DSA, see our previous blog posts here and here.
As part of its powers conferred under the DSA, the European Commission is empowered to adopt delegated and implementing acts* on certain aspects of implementation and enforcement of the DSA. In 2023, the Commission adopted one delegated act on supervisory fees to be paid by very large online platforms and very large online search engines (“VLOPs” and “VLOSEs” respectively), and one implementing act on procedural matters relating to the Commission’s enforcement powers. The Commission has proposed several other delegated and implementing acts, which we set out below. The consultation period for these draft acts have now passed, and we anticipate that they will be adopted in the coming months.Continue Reading Draft Delegated and Implementing Acts Pursuant to the Digital Services Act
ICO Launches Consultation Series on Generative AI
On 15 January 2024, the UK’s Information Commissioner’s Office (“ICO”) announced the launch of a consultation series (“Consultation”) on how elements of data protection law apply to the development and use of generative AI (“GenAI”). For the purposes of the Consultation, GenAI refers to “AI models that can create new content e.g., text, computer code, audio, music, images, and videos”.
As part of the Consultation, the ICO will publish a series of chapters over the coming months outlining their thinking on how the UK GDPR and Part 2 of the Data Protection Act 2018 apply to the development and use of GenAI. The first chapter, published in tandem with the Consultation’s announcement, covers the lawful basis, under UK data protection law, for web scraping of personal data to train GenAI models. Interested stakeholders are invited to provide feedback to the ICO by 1 March 2024.Continue Reading ICO Launches Consultation Series on Generative AI
EU Artificial Intelligence Act: Nearing the Finish Line
On December 9, 2023, the European Parliament, the Council of the European Union and the European Commission reached a political agreement on the EU Artificial Intelligence Act (“AI Act”) (see here for the Parliament’s press statement, here for the Council’s statement, and here for the Commission’s statement). Following three days of intense negotiations, during the fifth “trilogue” discussions amongst the EU institutions, negotiators reached an agreement on key topics, including: (i) the scope of the AI Act; (ii) AI systems classified as “high-risk” under the Act; and (iii) law enforcement exemptions.
As described in our previous blog posts on the AI Act (see here, here, and here), the Act will establish a comprehensive and horizontal law governing the development, import, deployment and use of AI systems in the EU. In this blog post, we provide a high-level summary of the main points EU legislators appear to have agreed upon, based on the press releases linked above and a further Q&A published by the Commission. However, the text of the political agreement is not yet publicly available. Further, although a political agreement has been reached, a number of details remain to be finalized in follow-up technical working meetings over the coming weeks.Continue Reading EU Artificial Intelligence Act: Nearing the Finish Line
From Washington to Brussels: A Comparative Look at the Biden Administration’s Executive Order and the EU’s AI Act
On October 30, 2023, days ahead of government leaders convening in the UK for an international AI Safety Summit, the White House issued an Executive Order (“EO”) outlining an expansive strategy to support the development and deployment of safe and secure AI technologies (for further details on the EO, see our blog here). As readers will be aware, the European Commission released its proposed Regulation Laying Down Harmonized Rules on Artificial Intelligence (the EU “AI Act”) in 2021 (see our blog here). EU lawmakers are currently negotiating changes to the Commission text, with hopes of finalizing the text by the end of this year, although many of its obligations would only begin to apply to regulated entities in 2026 or later.
The EO and the AI Act stand as two important developments shaping the future of global AI governance and regulation. This blog post discusses key similarities and differences between the two.Continue Reading From Washington to Brussels: A Comparative Look at the Biden Administration’s Executive Order and the EU’s AI Act
Implications of the EU Cybersecurity Scheme for Cloud Services
A would-be technical development could have potentially significant consequences for cloud service providers established outside the EU. The proposed EU Cybersecurity Certification Scheme for Cloud Services (EUCS)—which has been developed by the EU cybersecurity agency ENISA over the past two years and is expected to be adopted by the European Commission as an implementing act in Q1 2024—would, if adopted in its current form, establish certain requirements that could:
- exclude non-EU cloud providers from providing certain (“high” level) services to European companies, and
- preclude EU cloud customers from accessing the services of these non-EU providers.
Continue Reading Implications of the EU Cybersecurity Scheme for Cloud Services
European Commission Proposes GDPR Enforcement Procedure Regulation
On July 4, 2023, the European Commission published its proposal for a regulation laying down additional procedural rules relating to the enforcement of the GDPR. The aim of the proposed Regulation is to clarify and harmonize the procedural rules that apply when EU supervisory authorities investigate complaint-based and ex officio cross-border cases (i.e., where the relevant processing conducted by a controller or processor spans multiple Member States, resulting in a “lead” authority and additional “concerned” authorities). If adopted, the Regulation will sit alongside the GDPR, complementing the existing cooperation and consistency mechanisms set forth in Chapter VII.Continue Reading European Commission Proposes GDPR Enforcement Procedure Regulation