The Regulation of Digital Technologies in the EU: Act-ification, GDPR Mimesis and EU Law Brutality at Play

by Vagelis Papakonstantinou, Paul De Hert

Overview

EU regulatory initiatives concerning technology-related topics have spiked over the past few years. On the basis of its Priorities Programme, which is focused on making Europe ‘Fit for the Digital Age’, the European Commission has been busily releasing new texts aimed at regulating a number of technology topics, including data uses, online platforms, cybersecurity, and artificial intelligence.

This book identifies three phenomena which are common to all EU digital technologies-relevant regulatory initiatives: act-ification, GDPR mimesis, and regulatory brutality. These three phenomena serve as indicators or early signs of a new European technology law-making paradigm that now seems ready to emerge. They divulge new-found confidence on the part of the EU digital technologies legislator, who has now asserted for itself the right to form policy options and create new rules in the field for all of Europe.

Bringing together an analysis of the regulatory initiatives for the management of technology topics in the EU for the first time, this book will be of interest to academics, policymakers, and practitioners, sparking academic and policymaking interest and discussion.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781032630151
Publisher:	Taylor & Francis
Publication date:	11/28/2025
Series:	Routledge Research in the Law of Emerging Technologies
Pages:	154
Product dimensions:	6.12(w) x 9.19(h) x (d)

About the Author

Vagelis Papakonstantinou is Professor of Personal Data Protection Law at the Faculty of Law & Criminology of the Free University of Brussels (VUB, Vrije Universiteit Brussel), focusing on cybersecurity, intellectual property and the broader topic of technology regulation. He works through the Cyber and Data Security Lab, for which he is the scientific coordinator, as well as through VUB’s Research Group on Law Science Technology & Society (LSTS) and the Brussels Privacy Hub.

Paul de Hert is Professor at the Faculty of Law & Criminology at the VUB and an associate professor at the Law School/Tilburg Institute for Law and Technology (TILT), University of Tilburg. He is Director of the VUB’s Research Group on Human Rights, Vice-Dean of the Faculty of Law & Criminology, and a former director of the LSTS and of the Department of Interdisciplinary Studies of Law.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements vii

List of abbreviations viii

1 Introduction 1

PART 1

The change of paradigm in the EU’s regulation of digital technologies: ‘act-ification’ at play 13

2 Popular names instead of alphanumeric titles for EU laws regulating digital technologies 15

3 The titles of EU legal acts 22

4 Is act-ification useful? 28

PART 2

‘GDPR mimesis’ in (all?) EU regulatory initiatives related to digital technologies 39

5 ‘GDPR mimesis’: has the success of the GDPR dulled the EU legislator’s imagination? 41

6 The EU data protection model and its embodiment in the GDPR 54

7 Is GDPR mimesis useful for the regulation of digital technologies? 64

PART 3

The ‘brutality’ of EU legislation on new digital technologies 71

8 The ‘regulatory brutality’ of EU law when regulating digital technologies 73

9 Basic principles of EU law and the regulation of digital technologies 85

10 Why is regulatory brutality a problem when regulating digital technologies in the EU? 95

PART 4

A new paradigm for EU law 105

11 The current reality of digital technologies in Europe 107

12 The European way for the digital age 120

Index 135