Connected – February 2024
Written By
Senior Counsel
Germany
I am an experienced communications and data protection lawyer focusing on the communications sector.
This issue has been edited by Valerian Jenny with contributions from the Regulatory & Public Affairs team.
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AI Act on track to be formally adopted ahead of the European elections
Groundbreaking new legislation to regulate artificial intelligence systems on the EU market is now on course to be officially adopted by the European Parliament in April and thereafter by the Council, ahead of the European elections in June. To recall, on 8 December 2023, EU institutions reached a provisional political agreement on the EU Artificial Intelligence Act (AI Act), which nevertheless left many open provisions regarding scope, enforcement, governance, prohibitions, general purpose AI (GPAI) and high-risk applications. Throughout January, several technical meetings took place between the European Commission, Council and the European Parliament to hash out agreements on these significant issues.
For more information, please contact Francine Cunningham, Paula Alexe.
Gigabit Infrastructure Act: new European rules to spur telecoms networks roll-out
On 6 February, the Council presidency and the European Parliament reached a provisional agreement on a proposal to replace the 2014 Broadband cost-reduction directive (BCRD) by the Gigabit Infrastructure Act (GIA) to accelerate the deployment of gigabit network infrastructure across Europe.
For more information, please contact Feyo Sickinghe.
CER Directive: German legislator presents a new draft of the local implementation
The German legislator continues its work on the national implementation of the Directive (EU) 2022/2557 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 14 December 2022 on the resilience of critical entities and repealing Council Directive 2008/114/EC (“CER Directive”), the so-called “Umbrella Law to Strengthen the Physical Resilience of Operators of Critical Entities” (in German: “KRITIS-Dachgesetz”).
For more information, please contact Dr. Natallia Karniyevich.
What's next for the EU Data Act
The EU Data Act is the new EU law that aims to create a single market for data. As the law entered into force on 11 January 2024, the focus of the EU legislators and stakeholders will now shift to its application, its implementation, and its sectoral dimensions. The end goal is to ensure that data can be easily and safely shared across organizations and sectors within the EU to drive innovation while ensuring the privacy and protection of personal data.
For more information, please contact Paolo Sasdelli.
Which countries have appointed their Digital Services Coordinators under the DSA?
Under Article 49 of the DSA, Member States have until the 17 February 2024 to designate a competent authority as their Digital Service Coordinators (DSCs) who will oversee the enforcement of the Digital Services Act (DSA) at national level. 17 February 2024 is the date when the Regulation will apply to all intermediary service providers such as social media, hosting service providers, online marketplaces, app stores and collaborative economy platforms.
For more information, please contact Francine Cunningham, Paolo Sasdelli.
Space and Satellite - Legal and Regulatory developments in 2023
There has been continued attention and buzz in the space and satellite industry in 2023, with India’s moon landing, successful space tourism missions and a record number of people in space at one time to name some of the many recent developments in the sector.
For more information, please contact Hayley Blyth.
Blockchain Sandbox
On February 2024 Bird & Bird and OXYGY, together with the European Commission, have released the 2023 best practices report for the pan-European blockchain regulatory sandbox. This first edition of the best practices report shares a summary of the experiences gained and lessons learned over the first year of setting up and running the regulatory sandbox.
Access the abstract and full report (in English and French) here
