The European legislator has recently adopted several pieces of legislation in the field of digital and data. Specifically, the Digital Services Act (DSA), the Regulation on Promoting Fairness and Transparency for Business Users of Online Intermediation Services (Platform to Business Regulation – P2B), the Data Governance Act (DGA), the Data Act, and the Artificial Intelligence Act (AI Act).

These are very new regulations, and with the exception of P2B, the Czech Republic has not yet managed to adopt adaptation laws for them. In addition, the Act on Artificial Intelligence is only gradually coming into effect. However, the European Commission has now come up with a proposal for a so-called "Digital Omnibus" (Digital Package on Simplification), which is intended to significantly amend some of these regulations, including the not yet fully effective Artificial Intelligence Act, while the P2B regulation is to be repealed entirely.

In general, these are legal regulations that respond to technological developments and are probably necessary in some form. However, it is necessary to ask whether there is any concept at all in this area at the European level, and if so, what form does it take? Given that the United States has recently subjected some of these regulations to very sharp criticism, is the "Digital Omnibus" perhaps a response to this criticism? And in what form will the aforementioned regulations – hitherto referred to as the cornerstones of the European digital data economy – continue to apply? Will they perhaps follow the fate of the e-Privacy Regulation? This was originally supposed to be adopted together with the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) in 2016, but this has not happened to date and now it seems unlikely to happen at all.

An equally relevant question is how the new Czech government will deal with this situation and whether and how it will amend the already prepared draft Act on the Digital Economy, its draft amendment, and the adaptation Act on Artificial Intelligence. For these reasons, the author considers it necessary to present a summary of the current situation to a wider professional audience.

Attorney and partner at VANTOR law firm. He is a member of the Commission for Public Law – Commission for Administrative Law of the Legislative Council of the Government of the Czech Republic, member of the Appeals Commission of the Energy Regulatory Office and arbitrator of the permanent Arbitration Court attached to the Czech Chamber of Commerce and the Agrarian Chamber of the Czech Republic. For a total of 18 years, he worked in top-managerial positions at T-Mobile Czech Republic a.s., a leading provider of electronic communications services, where he was responsible for the legal, regulatory, external relations, corporate security and compliance departments as General Counsel.

In his law practice he specialises in data protection, legal and regulatory issues of the network industries, in particular electronic communications, law of digital technology, digital and data economy, cyber security, payment transactions regulation and compliance. He is the author and co-author of professional publications, especially in the areas of personal data protection and electronic communications law, among others he was the head of the author team of the “big” commentary to the General Data Protection Regulation published in 2021 and the head of the author team of the “big” commentary to the AI Act – in preparation.