Navigating the EU Digital Decade

What is the Digital Decade?

The Digital Decade is an exciting and ambitious legislative programme designed to propel the EU to the forefront of tech innovation. It includes 13 key laws that cover a wide range of topics, such as AI regulation, cybersecurity, operational resilience, commercial data sharing, privacy, digital competition, and online safety. While these laws may seem diverse, they are all connected by a common goal of advancing technology and innovation.

While the Digital Decade aims to bring positive changes, it also presents several challenges including:

• Personal Liability: Management bodies may face personal liability for decisions they have limited visibility over, increasing individual risk.
  
  
• Increased Compliance Burden: The laws impose complex obligations, requiring significant changes to operations and processes, often without clear regulatory guidance.
  
  
• New Business Rights: Businesses gain new rights, such as allocating risk across supply chains and accessing third-party data at reasonable prices.
  
  
• Unfamiliar Subject Matter: Businesses may be unfamiliar with the new requirements, and existing governance and risk controls may not be suitable.
  
  
• Overlapping Implementation Measures: Implementation measures often overlap, leading to potential duplication of costs and effort.
  
  
• Revenue-Based Penalties: The laws introduce significant revenue-based penalties, comparable to those in competition and data protection laws.

Whilst compliance is an important aspect, the Digital Decade strategy is intended to promote growth and is projected to add EUR270 billion annually to EU GDP by 2028.