European Union

ACT represents startups and small tech companies across the European Union, providing insight and advocacy to shape a policy environment that reflects how technology is built and used in practice. ACT works with our members across Europe to understand the realities of operating a startup or small tech company and advocating for change in Brussels.

We support a vibrant and growing community of founders, innovators, and funders dedicated to supporting each other and building a stronger small technology community.

Online Marketplaces & Competition

Curated Online Marketplaces (COMs), such as app stores, help small teams reach users. But policies like the European Union’s Digital Markets Act (DMA) which mandate broad access requirements can weaken security, raise fraud risk, and create disruptive implementation churn that hits small developers first. Startups and small tech companies leverage COMs, including app stores, cloud platforms, and e-commerce hubs, to reach customers efficiently. Startups and small companies rely on the economics of trust – the long-term accretion of consumer confidence won by well-managed marketplaces – to sell products and services to customers that otherwise would be suspicious of young companies.

  • State of the Digital Markets Act: The SME Perspective

    After two years of enforcement, there is no evidence that the DMA has delivered measurable benefits to small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). Instead, EU enforcement has consistently advanced the interests of a handful of large third-parties at the expense of the broader app developer ecosystem.

  • Correcting the Record: State of the Digital Markets Act

    After two years of enforcement, there is little evidence of benefits reaching the SME community, and the European Commission’s report on implementation merely deferred to the interests of a small group of large complainants at the expense of the SME developers the DMA was written to help.

  • 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,…

Intellectual Property

Technical standards power interoperability across artificial intelligence (AI) and the internet of things (IoT) ecosystems. Startups and small tech companies utilize these standards to compete and innovation across consumer and enterprise markets. But the abuse of patents within standards makes pricing, planning, and access to capital harder if not impossible. The requirement for fair, reasonable, and non-discriminatory (FRAND) licensing of standard-essential patents (SEP) to any willing licensee must be upheld. Startups and small tech companies drive innovation across the globe, but the obstruction and exploitation by a handful of SEP holding bad actors is stifling innovation.

Funding and Taxes

Small teams need cross-border market access and predictable routes to funding and liquidity. Uncertainty around data flows, localisation, and merger review increases risk, tightens capital, and makes it harder for startups to scale and reinvest. For startups, scaleups, and small businesses, tax policy is not an abstraction. It is the difference between surviving a few bad quarters or shutting down, between hiring a fifth engineer or plateauting at four, and between scaling into a federal contract or staying stuck in bootstrap mode. Innovation first tax policy can make the difference between nurturing a vibrant local startup ecosystem, and forcing entrepreneurs to seek more fertile shores.

Policy priorities

Current policy focus in European Union

Recent

  • Associations across Europe call on the Commission to chart a clear, European course on child safety online

    As the European Commission prepares to set out its legislative priorities for the year ahead, trade associations representing companies of all sizes operating across Europe's digital economy, call on President von der Leyen to use the State of the Union address as an opportunity to provide the regulatory clarity that young Europeans, their families, digital services, and Member States urgently need on child safety online.

  • State of the Digital Markets Act: The SME Perspective

    After two years of enforcement, there is no evidence that the DMA has delivered measurable benefits to small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). Instead, EU enforcement has consistently advanced the interests of a handful of large third-parties at the expense of the broader app developer ecosystem.

  • European Innovation Act and Public Procurement Act: real progress, but pieces are still missing

    The Commission has cast the EU Innovation Act and the Public Procurement Act as a practical solution to resolving real challenges faced by European small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). Unfortunately, while the proposal released today shows progress, the draft still lacks some key pieces.

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