On 17 January 2024, the European Parliament adopted a proposal for a new EU Directive empowering consumers for the green transition introducing new rules to ban misleading advertising and to provide consumers with better product information. To achieve this, a number of marketing practices related to greenwashing will be added to the EU list of prohibited commercial practices. In addition, new rules on informing consumers on a product’s durability will be introduced.
This alert focuses on AI hallucinations and their implications for the responsible use of AI in your business. It aims to provide an overview of the legal ramifications of AI hallucinations, as well as recent regulatory developments in this area.
Artificial Intelligence (AI) is revolutionizing the human resources landscape, offering unprecedented opportunities for efficiency and innovation. However, this rapid adoption of AI also brings forth critical ethical considerations, particularly in the fields of employment law and human rights protection. Several laws and regulations on AI governance are currently on the way. At the EU level, for example, the AI Act is currently in the legislative process.
8 December 2023 was a historic moment for AI regulation in Europe. Following three days of extensive debates, the EU Parliament, Council and Commission finally announced a provisional agreement on the EU AI Act, the bloc’s landmark legislation regulating the development and use of AI in Europe. It is one of the world’s first comprehensive attempts to regulate the use of AI.
The regulatory reform of European long-term investment funds enters into force on 10 January 2024, following its approval by the European Parliament and the Council in February 2023.
Regulation (EU) 2023/606 aims at revitalizing a vehicle that was put in place back in 2015 but which, in the words of the Regulation itself, “did not scale up as expected.”
With this in mind, the new regime tackles the shortfalls identified both on the managers’ side- as they will now find themselves dealing with a much more flexible product in items such as eligible assets, borrowing, or concentration and diversification rules – as well as on the side of the investors, notably retail investors, whose access to this investment product now becomes simpler.
The European Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM) entered into force on 1 October 2023. The full panoply of obligations will gradually start to apply during the so-called Transitional Phase through 31 December 2025. Importantly, EU importers will have to submit the first report under the CBAM shortly, by 31 January 2024, reporting on the scope of embedded emissions in certain goods they have imported during the first quarter year the CBAM has applied (1 October 2023-31 December 2023). This article covers what EU importers need to report on by the end of the month, 31 January 2024, together with an overview of the new regulation and the obligations it sets out.
Agreeing conditions precedent and deal timelines has always been a challenge for companies. From an EU perspective, companies previously only had to consider whether a deal led to an EU or Member State merger control filing obligation. However, there are now three new layers of complexity for companies to consider in the EU:
The new EU Deforestation Regulation (2023/1115/EU) will impose due diligence obligations from 30 December 2024 aimed at tackling deforestation and forest degradation. The Regulation will require companies dealing in in-scope products to undertake due diligence into the source of a wide range of commodities, including cattle, cocoa, coffee, palm-oil, rubber, soya and wood, to ensure that they have not been obtained as a result of deforestation.
The new EU foreign subsidies regime will impact all multinational companies regardless of their country of origin. As of 12 October 2023, companies engaging in large transactions and bidding for large public procurement contracts in the EU are obliged to seek prior clearance from the European Commission. Implementing rules provide some welcome reporting relief, but the notification process requires that companies put in place mechanisms to track in real time a wide range of foreign financial contributions granted directly or indirectly from non-EU state funding
The Digital Services Act imposes wide-ranging and transformative obligations on online intermediaries and platforms. As has been well-publicized over the last few months, the most onerous obligations and tighter deadlines for compliance fall on services designated by the Commission as very large online platforms or very large online search engines. However, all online platforms and online search engines were required to publish information on their user figures earlier this year, and all online intermediaries in scope should be preparing for full compliance in February 2024.