EU Commission Announces “Innovation-Friendly” Digital Rules and Fix for Cookie Banner Fatigue

The European Commission detailed today some new “innovation-friendly” digital rules that may profoundly impact how big tech companies operate. To boost innovation, the Commission’s digital package includes changes to various EU laws, including the Data Act, GDPR, and AI Act to “boost tech competitiveness” by simplifying rules and procedures and cutting administrative costs, all without compromising the protection of European citizens.

“Europe’s businesses, from factories to start-ups, will spend less time on administrative work and compliance and more time innovating and scaling-up, thanks to the European Commission’s new digital package,” the EU regulator announced today. “This initiative opens opportunities for European companies to grow and to stay at the forefront of technology while at the same time promoting Europe’s highest standards of fundamental rights, data protection, safety and fairness.”

In detail, the Commission’s digital package will consolidate the EU’s data rules into two laws, the Data Act and the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). The regulator hopes to make it easier for businesses to comply with the Data Act, all while improving access to high-quality data for AI companies.

For the GDPR, the Commission wants to get rid of the annoying cookie banners on all websites and replace them with one-click consent that would be defined at the browser or system level. This would really make browsing the web more pleasant to use for EU users, as cookie banners are not standardized and get in the way way too often.

The EU regulator also proposed other GDPR amendments to make it easier for businesses to comply with the law. The Commission mentioned “clarifying when they must conduct data protection impact assessments and when and how to notify data breaches to supervisory authorities.”

The new Digital Package that was announced today also included changes to the AI Act, which has often been accused of restricting innovation. The Commission specifically said that it wants to introduce simplification by “reducing the registration burden for AI systems used in high-risk areas for tasks that are not considered high-risk.” These new high-risk rules will only come into effect next year when the Commission confirms that the necessary standards and support tools are available.