A key step towards the adoption of the EU AI Act was reached on 2 February 2024 as the draft text received unanimous approval from the European Council’s main preparatory body. There are further votes to follow before the Act is adopted, but it’s looking likely that the final vote will take place in April and some substantive provisions of the Act could be in force soon after that, possibly by the end of the year.

Data is a critical asset in today’s globally connected economy. Rapidly evolving technologies have made it easier than ever for companies to collect, use and transfer data throughout the world. Yet strict data protection, privacy and cybersecurity regulation is evolving rapidly, imposing complex and often inconsistent standards. Our Global Data Privacy & Cybersecurity Handbook is updated annually to help you keep up with the dynamic legal landscape. We provide detailed overviews and allow a comparative perspective of the increasingly complex and sophisticated data privacy and cybersecurity standards in over 50 countries.

8 December 2023 was a historic moment for AI regulation in Europe. Following three days of extensive debates, the EU Parliament, Council and Commission finally announced a provisional agreement on the EU AI Act, the bloc’s landmark legislation regulating the development and use of AI in Europe. It is one of the world’s first comprehensive attempts to regulate the use of AI.

After three days of extensive final debate the EU Parliament, Council and Commission finally announced provisional agreement on the EU AI Act, the bloc’s landmark legislation regulating development and use of AI in the European Union. It is one of the world’s first comprehensive attempts to regulate the use of AI.
The EU AI Act awaits formal adoption by both Parliament and Council before it will become EU law.

On 23 October 2019, the European Parliament and the Council adopted Directive (EU) 2019/1937 on the protection of persons who report breaches of Union law, informally referred to as the “EU Whistleblower Directive”.
Belgium has implemented the EU Whistleblower Directive separately for the public and the private sectors, with the Act of 8 December 2022 on reporting channels and protection of whistleblowers in federal public sector bodies and the integrated police, and the Act of 28 November 2022 on the protection of whistleblowers of breaches of Union or national law established within a legal entity in the private sector, published on 15 December 2022, which came into effect on 15 February 2023.

ESG disputes pose one of the top risks to organizations in the coming year, particularly the increasing concern of governance disputes. Join Baker McKenzie’s global team on 31 January 2023 as they discuss key risks to your organization as well as how to manage these and adapt to changing demands.

Looking to the year ahead, Baker McKenzie commissioned a survey of 600 senior lawyers across the globe and uncovered that corporations expect more disputes this year, driven by economic uncertainty, global trade shifts and altered business models. Disputes around cybersecurity/data and ESG rank as emerging risk areas, while tax and employment disputes remain a constant consideration for organizations. To help stay abreast of emerging challenges and prepare to navigate the changing disputes landscape, join our experts across the globe in a series of webinars as they unpack findings from our latest report, The Year Ahead: Global Disputes Forecast 2023, and uncover a practical, actionable way forward.

Baker McKenzie was invited to serve as the global editor of the Chambers Advertising & Marketing 2022 Practice Guide which features 8 high-profile jurisdictions and provides the latest legal information on the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, advertising claims and clinical studies, comparative advertising, social/digital media, influencer campaigns, consumer promotions, sports betting/gambling, and cryptocurrency and non-fungible tokens.

Explore Data PULSE, a platform which helps you to navigate the complex landscape of data, regulatory and IP protection concerns at each stage of the medical product life cycle. As you navigate through each key issue, Data PULSE will help you to identify and mitigate risks across multiple jurisdictions and optimize your strategy through research, market authorization and post-market study phases.