The European Supervisory Authorities are preparing to designate critical third-party service providers under the Digital Operational Resilience Act (DORA). DORA, which came into force on 17 January 2025, enables the ESAs to designate key ICT providers to the EU financial services sector as critical, subjecting them to direct supervisory and oversight obligations. The ESAs have recently published a roadmap indicating their expected timeline for designations – with the final designations expected to be in place by the end of this year.

The UK government has published its long-awaited response to the AI White Paper, “A pro-innovation approach to AI regulation” published in March 2023. In this article, we distill the essential information you need to know.

Hot on the heels of the unanimous vote by Ambassadors for the EU Member States approving the EU AI Act on 2 February, on 13 February, lawmakers from the EU Parliament have also overwhelmingly voted in favor of the Act as it continues on its legislative journey. The joint internal market and civil liberties committee of the Parliament voted 71 to 8 to approve the Act, with 7 abstentions. This now leaves the path to bringing the Act into force only requiring a final vote by the European Parliament and national ministers, likely to be in April, which is now seen very much as a rubber-stamping exercise, given the votes that have taken place.

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.

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.

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is driving new business opportunities across a growing number of industry sectors, including consumer goods and retail. Enticed by its transformative potential, companies are actively exploring, experimenting, and deploying AI solutions in business processes, products, and services and are finding ways to derive business value from it. The emergence of generative AI capable of human-like text that can analyze vast amounts of data and create new content has caught the public’s attention and turbocharged interest in potential use cases in the CG&R industry.

Off the Shelf, the Global Consumer Goods & Retail Industry Video Podcast, provides short practical legal insights into the key issues affecting consumer goods and retail (CG&R) businesses. Season 3 looks at how artificial intelligence is impacting the CG&R industry.

The capabilities and use cases for AI and ML are moving at lightning speed, and the law is trying to catch up. Legal, compliance and governance functions must manage risk and develop processes and policies for AI projects that work with the law as it is today, while also anticipating the coming wave of legal, regulatory and technological change.
In this webinar series, our EMEA team discussed the IP and data privacy issues raised by AI, the developing regulatory landscape and practical issues when contracting for AI.

The EU’s Digital Operational Resilience Act (DORA) aims to promote, improve and ensure operational resilience within the financial services sector. It comes into effect on 17 January 2025. Last month, six months into the two-year implementation period, the European Supervisory Authorities published a consultation package regarding the first batch of certain draft regulatory technical standards and draft implementing technical standards on certain aspects of DORA.