Throughout the year, our policy team submits filings with government bodies worldwide to advocate for a regulatory environment that inspires and rewards innovation. From issues around regulating artificial intelligence to digital trade, our team is ACTive on a wide range of topics that could have a positive or negative impact on our small business members driving the app economy. Below is a roundup of our filings from around the globe this past month.

Title: Comments of ACT | The App Association to MOIT on the Draft Law Amending the Law on Commerce, the Competition Law, the Law on Foreign Trade Management, and the Law of Protection of Consumer Rights

Entity: Ministry of Industry and Trade (MOIT)

Jurisdiction: Vietnam

Summary: ACT submitted comments to MOIT in response to draft updates to Vietnam’s laws on commerce, competition, trade, and consumer rights. ACT’s comments included its detailed paper on platform competition and how small businesses interact with curated online marketplaces, as well as specific responses to MOIT’s proposed amendments. ACT urged MOIT to avoid taking the approaches of jurisdictions like Europe and Japan that have had negative consequences for small and medium-sized entities (SMEs).

Filed: February 2, 2026

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Title: ACT’s Comments on the European Commission’s Consultation Towards Open European Digital Ecosystems

Entity: European Commission

Jurisdiction: European Union

Summary: ACT provided feedback to the European Commission on its open digital ecosystems initiative. ACT discussed the strengths and weaknesses of the EU open source sector, the added value of open source for the public and private sectors, concrete measures the EU could take to support open source, technology areas that should be prioritized, and how increased use of open source technologies can enhance competitiveness and cyber resilience.

Filed: February 3, 2026

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Title: ACT | The App Association’s Letter to the House Judiciary Committee regarding its hearing “Europe’s Threat to American Speech and Innovation: Part II”

Entity: House of Representatives Committee on the Judiciary

Jurisdiction: United States

Summary: ACT submitted a statement for the record for the House Judiciary Committee hearing entitled, “Europe’s Threat to American Speech and Innovation: Part II.” ACT’s statement discussed the ways in which small businesses benefit from curated online marketplaces, including built-in consumer trust, off-loading overhead, and instantaneous access to global markets, and argued that the EU’s Digital Markets Act has undermined these and other features.

Filed: February 4, 2026

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Title: Feedback of ACT | The App Association to the European Commission Regarding its Communication on Better Regulation

Entity: European Commission

Jurisdiction: European Union

Summary: ACT submitted feedback to the European Commission regarding its proposal to modernize the Better Regulation framework. ACT highlighted areas for improvement, including making consultation timelines that are realistic for SMEs, avoiding restrictive consultations in the name of “simplicity by design,” and ensuring that targeted consultation and alternative instruments are inclusive.

Filed: February 4, 2026

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Title: Open Letter to World Trade Organization Members: Supporting Micro, Small, and Medium-Sized Business and Startup Growth and Job Creation by Making the WTO Moratorium on Customs Duties on Electronic Transmissions and Associated Work Programme on Electronic Commerce Permanent

Entity: World Trade Organization (WTO)

Jurisdiction: United Nations

Summary: ACT led an open letter with organizations representing SMEs from around the world calling on WTO members to make the “e-commerce moratorium,” a temporary prohibition on customs duties on electronic transactions, permanent. The letter explained the benefits of the moratorium to the global digital economy and that its expiration would fall heavily on SMEs.

Filed: February 5, 2026

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Title: Comments of ACT | The App Association on the DPIIT Committee’s “Working Paper on Generative AI and Copyright – Part 1”

Entity: Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT)

Jurisdiction: India

Summary: ACT submitted comments to DPIIT regarding its working paper on generative AI and copyright. ACT’s comments highlighted the risks to SMEs of a centralized mandatory licensing system and made broader policy recommendations for an AI framework, including quality assurance and oversight, modernized privacy and security frameworks, education, and intellectual property protections.

Filed: February 6, 2026

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Title: Comments of ACT | The App Association on the Competition Bureau’s Proposed Merger Enforcement Guidelines

Entity: Canadian Competition Bureau (CBC)

Jurisdiction: Canada

Summary: ACT submitted comments to the CBC in response to the Bureau’s proposed merger enforcement guidelines. ACT argued that acquisitions are a core success pathway for SMEs, that economic analysis rather than hypotheticals or edge cases must remain central to merger review, that vertical mergers should not be treated as inherently harmful, and that SMEs are uniquely vulnerable to uncertainty in merger enforcement.

Filed: February 11, 2026

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Title: Feedback of ACT | The App Association to the European Commission Regarding EU’s Action Plan for Women in Research, Innovation, and Startups

Entity: European Commission

Jurisdiction: European Union

Summary: ACT submitted feedback to the European Commission regarding its action plan for women in research, innovation, and startups. ACT strongly supports the Commission’s development of a comprehensive action plan addressing persistent gender gaps and emphasized the need to address informal barriers and systemic factors that deter women’s participation in technology fields as well as formal ones.

Filed: February 23, 2026