Updates and Analysis
Technology policy blog and industry insights
Stay up to date with the latest insights from ACT, covering technology policy, industry developments and the evolving app economy. Our blog brings together expert analysis, commentary and updates to help small and medium-sized technology companies understand the issues shaping the connected technology ecosystem.
Updates and Analysis
Technology policy blog and industry insights
Stay up to date with the latest insights from ACT, covering technology policy, industry developments and the evolving app economy. Our blog brings together expert analysis, commentary and updates to help small and medium-sized technology companies understand the issues shaping the connected technology ecosystem.
- The Innovation Act and the Procurement Act: A Good Start, Not Yet the Finish Line
On 9 September, the Commission unveiled two files that startups have been waiting years for: the European Innovation Act and the Public Procurement Act. Alongside them came a third, quieter proposal, a Recommendation on…
- AICOA is DMA in Translation
Think AICOA won’t result in degraded products and services? Think again. Graham Dufault compares language and legal implications of provisions in AICOA to provisions in DMA and breaks down what we can learn from the European Unions' experiment. Where AICOA departs from the DMA, it departs by going further. In both cases, degradation is not a risk that careful implementation might avoid; it is the mechanism. Consumers are absorbing the higher costs directly. And small business developers are absorbing them twice — once as users of the digital platforms, and again as the firms least able to overcome a consumer’s rational new hesitance to install software from a name they don’t recognize. U.S. small tech businesses and our digital economy can't afford to make the same mistakes.
- Second Thoughts: Key Jurisdictions Smarten Up on DMA
For more than a decade, experts have described a “Brussels Effect,” in which jurisdictions worldwide follow the European Union’s (EU) lead on government intervention. In recent years in tech…
- Field Notes from the Developed Tour 2026
From 18 May to 18 June, ACT hit the road traveling across Europe for our Developed Tour, a month-long trek to sit down with the people building the digital economy:…
- What European Startups and SMEs Should Know as the AI Omnibus Enters into Force
On 27 July 2026, the Digital Omnibus on AI, Regulation (EU) 2026/1744, entered into force just three days after publication in the Official Journal, and less than a week before…
- Digital Sovereignty Should be Earned, Not Legislated
‘Digital sovereignty’ has become one of the most-used phrases in Brussels and one of the more debated ones. At its core, it refers to Europe’s ability to control the technologies,…
- Inside IAPP’s Personal, Private, Protected: The Future of Youth Personalization
As online safety debates intensify in Congress and across state legislatures, policymakers are increasingly grappling with how to balance privacy, personalization, and the protection of children online. Against this backdrop,…
- Event Recap: Packed Hill Briefing on AICOA Highlights Risks for Small Businesses and Digital Innovation
The small business voice is often hardest to hear in debates over “Big Tech” regulation. That was the central takeaway from ACT’s July 2 Hill briefing, AICOA is Back: What “Big…
- Event Recap: ACT Calls for Privacy Laws that Support Good Business
As the use of technology expands to ever more parts of our daily lives, policymakers are working to address the challenges of how to protect children online, especially their privacy…