European Commission Scraps Draft Rules on Tech Patents, AI Liability, and Online Privacy

EU Ditches Plans to Regulate Tech Patents, AI Liability, Online Privacy

BRUSSELS (Reuters) - The European Commission on Wednesday scrapped draft rules regulating technology patents, AI and consumer privacy on messaging apps, saying it did not expect them to receive the green light from EU lawmakers and countries. All three proposals had faced intense lobbying by industries and Big Tech. Among them was a rule aimed at regulating standard essential patents used in technologies for telecom equipment, mobile phones, computers, connected cars and smart devices, proposed two years ago to end costly and lengthy litigation. The EU executive said in its 2025 work programme it saw no foreseeable agreement, and would assess whether another proposal should be tabled. The patent rule pitted firms such as Nokia, Ericsson and Qualcomm, which own valuable essential patents, against carmakers, Apple and Google, which want to use them, with the dispute on the level of royalties to be paid. Nokia - which together with Ericsson and Siemens had opposed the draft rules - cheered the move to scrap them. "It would have had an adverse impact on the global innovation ecosystem, in particular the incentives for European companies to invest billions of euros each year in R&D," Nokia said in a statement. The Fair Standards Alliance, whose members include BMW, Tesla, Alphabet's Google and Amazon, said it was stunned by the Commission's decision. "The withdrawal sends a terrible signal to innovative businesses who rely on a predictable and fair SEP licensing system," the lobbying group said. The second draft rule binned by the Commission, the AI Liability Directive, proposed in 2022, would have allowed consumers to sue for compensation for harm due to the fault or omission of a provider, developer or user of AI technology. The EU executive said it would assess whether to come up with another proposal. "We should not assume this move signals a change in policy direction for the Commission when it comes to the regulation of AI," said Rod Freeman, head of law firm Cooley's global products practice. "We have ground-breaking new laws on the books now in Europe governing AI, the impact of which we are still yet to see," he said. The EU executive also ditched a plan which would require Meta Platforms' WhatsApp and Microsoft unit Skype to be subjected to the same tough rules as telecoms providers regarding users' privacy. The rule known as the eprivacy regulation, which dates from 2017 and has been in limbo since 2020, sought to create a level playing field between Big Tech and telecoms operators. It has been stymied by disagreements between EU countries on rules for cookies tracking users' online activities and provisions on detecting and deleting child pornography. The Commission said no agreement was expected from co-legislators, and that the proposal is "outdated in view of some recent legislation".

European Commission Withdraws Draft Rules on Technology Patents, AI Liability and Consumer Privacy | PYMNTS.com

The European Commission (EC) will stop pursuing three draft rules that would have regulated technology patents, artificial intelligence (AI) liability and consumer privacy on messaging apps. The three draft rules faced opposition from the industries they would have affected, and the EC said it did not expect them to be approved by European Union lawmakers, Reuters reported Wednesday (Feb. 12). The EC announced its decisions in annexes to a EC work program it released Wednesday. As a reason for withdrawal of the draft rule having to do with technology patents, the EC said in the annexes: "No foreseeable agreement -- the Commission will assess whether another proposal should be tabled or another type of approach should be chosen." It listed the same or similar reasons for withdrawal of the draft rules on AI and messaging apps. The draft rule on patents would have regulated standard essential patents used in telecom equipment, mobile phones, computers, connected cars and smart devices, according to the Reuters report. The AI Liability Directive would have allowed consumers to sue for harm caused by providers, developers or users of AI technology, the report said. Another draft rule withdrawn by the EC was known as the "eprivacy regulation" and would have subjected WhatsApp and Skype to the same user privacy rules that apply to telecom providers, per the report. The EC's work program focuses on the initiatives it will take over the next year, while the annexes include "evaluations and fitness checks" of newly proposed initiatives, according to a Wednesday press release. "Citizens and businesses have called for a simpler and leaner European Union," Ursula von der Leyen, president of the EC, said in the release. "This roadmap charts our course to a more competitive, resilient and prosperous Europe." It was reported in January that the EC was reconsidering its investigations into U.S. tech giants ahead of the inauguration of Donald Trump as U.S. president. In September, when two of the European Union's top regulators were about to step down from their posts, experts speculated that the organization's political priorities might change, though new rules introduced in the previous five years would still need to be enforced.