EU Commission looks to cut overlap in tech directives -Virkkunen

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By Toby Sterling

AMSTERDAM (Reuters) – The European Commission is looking at ways to cut overlap in tech rules in response to complaints from business about the flood of new EU regulations in recent years, digital chief Henna Virkkunen said on Thursday.

Outside a meeting in Amsterdam, Virkkunen told reporters she had no plans to water down laws such as the Digital Services Act which governs content moderation, the Digital Markets Act, which governs big tech platforms, or the AI Act which applies risk-based rules to artificial intelligence, as part of a review of the rules.

“Everybody who is doing business in Europe has to respect our rules here. European companies, but also American and Chinese,” she said.

The European Union has been at the forefront of regulating technology, drawing criticism from U.S. President Donald Trump because dominant U.S. big tech firms are often targeted, and from European businesses that say over-regulation stifling innovation.

Virkkunen said the commission is looking at ways to make life easier for companies.

“We will look at all our digital rules … often it’s the same company who has to comply with the different rules, ” she said.

“It’s possible that we are amending some parts of them where we see that there are, for example, overlapping parts, and we are also looking at how we can cut red tape and bureaucracy, especially for example, reporting obligations,” she said.

She also said she favors enforcement of existing rules evenly across EU countries above pursuing further new directives governing tech.

The commission earlier this month delayed adopting new climate change targets and sustainability rules following complaints that over-regulation is reducing EU competitiveness versus U.S. and Chinese rivals.

(Reporting by Toby Sterling; editing by David Evans)