Legal News - July 25

The European Commission has published an Action Plan addressing the dual-edged nature of frontier artificial intelligence models in cybersecurity, outlining how the EU will harness AI's defensive capabilities while protecting against AI-powered cyber threats. Through nine key actions spanning 2026-2027, the plan establishes frameworks for safe AI evaluation, structured access to advanced AI capabilities, and the scaling of European sovereign AI cybersecurity solutions across critical infrastructure sectors.

The European Commission has published comprehensive guidelines on AI transparency obligations under Article 50 of the EU AI Act, with enforcement beginning August 2, 2026. These guidelines establish how organizations must disclose AI systems, mark synthetic content, label deepfakes, and demonstrate compliance, with significant penalties for non-compliance reaching up to €15 million or 3% of global turnover.

The Irish Government has published the Regulation of Artificial Intelligence Bill 2026, establishing Ireland's framework for implementing the EU AI Act. This landmark legislation creates the AI Office of Ireland as an independent statutory entity and designates existing sectoral authorities to oversee AI regulation within their domains. The Bill introduces a comprehensive administrative sanctions regime and enforcement toolkit while reflecting Ireland's National Digital and AI Strategy.

The European Union has reached a political agreement to amend the AI Act, introducing targeted changes aimed at simplifying compliance requirements for businesses while maintaining protective standards.

The Cyber Resilience Act (Regulation (EU) 2024/2847)1 (“CRA”) establishes horizontal cybersecurity requirements for products with digital elements (“PDEs”) placed on the European Union (“EU”) market. Reporting obligations took effect on 11 September 2026, with full application of the CRA from 11 December 2027.

Ireland has established the AI Office as its central coordinating authority under the EU AI Act, introducing a comprehensive regulatory framework that includes sector-based supervision, enforcement powers, and administrative fines reaching up to €35 million. The new legislation empowers market surveillance authorities like the Central Bank and Data Protection Commission to oversee AI compliance while creating a regulatory sandbox to foster innovation within legal boundaries.

The Court of Justice of the European Union has delivered landmark judgments that fundamentally reshape how online platforms can claim immunity from liability for user-generated content. These decisions establish that algorithmic content distribution and commercial partnerships with creators may strip platforms of their safe harbour protections, forcing a reassessment of how social media companies, video-sharing services, and digital marketplaces structure their operations and revenue models.

The EU Cyber Resilience Act introduces mandatory reporting obligations for manufacturers of digital products, requiring them to notify authorities within 24 hours of discovering actively exploited vulnerabilities or severe security incidents. This regulation establishes strict timelines for early warnings, detailed vulnerability notifications, and final reports, fundamentally changing how manufacturers must respond to cybersecurity threats.

On 19 November 2025, the European Commission published its proposed Digital Omnibus Package, a reform aimed at overhauling significant parts of the European Union's digital regulatory framework.

The European Commission's AI Digital Omnibus proposes targeted amendments to the EU's AI Act, aiming to simplify compliance requirements and address implementation challenges while maintaining core safeguards. The revision extends timelines for high-risk AI systems and provides additional regulatory privileges for small and mid-cap enterprises navigating the world's first comprehensive horizontal legal framework for artificial intelligence.

The Government has published its Autumn 2026 Legislation Programme, identifying 32 bills for priority publication and 32 bills for priority drafting. This article explores a selection of measures likely to be of interest to businesses, spanning digital economy, strategic infrastructure, litigation reform, financial regulation, competition law, corporate structures, employment, pensions, and healthcare sectors.

Ireland has lifted its data centre connection moratorium and introduced a demanding new framework requiring developers to provide their own generation capacity, source 80% of electricity from new Irish renewables within six years, and meet strict grid stability requirements. The policy creates significant opportunities for developers who can navigate the complex intersection of grid connection, planning permission, and renewable energy procurement, though a pending legal challenge adds uncertainty to the la

Following concerns from Ireland's Transmission System Operator (EirGrid) as to overdemand and constraints on the electricity network...

The EU's Cyber Resilience Act introduces mandatory cybersecurity obligations for products with digital elements placed on the EU market. Understanding the five key manufacturer obligations—from secure-by-design requirements to incident reporting deadlines—is essential for compliance with this groundbreaking regulatory framework that elevates cybersecurity from best practice to legal requirement.

The European Commission has published comprehensive guidelines on AI transparency obligations under Article 50 of the EU AI Act, with enforcement beginning August 2, 2026. These guidelines establish how organizations must disclose AI systems, mark synthetic content, label deepfakes, and demonstrate compliance, with significant penalties for non-compliance reaching up to €15 million or 3% of global turnover.

On 18 September 2026, the European Banking Authority (the EBA) published its final report on the new “Guidelines on the sound management of third-party risk regarding non-ICT services (EBA/GL/2026/09)” (the 2026 Guidelines).

Spirit Airlines' proposed $10 million sale of a massive de-identified corporate dataset to Google in its Chapter 11 bankruptcy proceedings raises fundamental questions about whether operational business data can be treated as a realisable asset in insolvency. The transaction highlights the legal tension between preserving a dataset's commercial utility and ensuring individuals cannot be identified, particularly when the data maintains referential integrity across multiple systems.

The European Commission has issued interpretive guidelines on Article 50 of the AI Act, clarifying transparency obligations for emotion recognition systems, biometric categorization, and deepfake content.

The government yesterday published an updated policy statement on electricity interconnection. Interconnection of electricity supply between Ireland...

The Omnibus 1 Directive (EU) 2026/470 (Omnibus 1 Directive) was published in the Official Journal on 26 February. This new Directive, which amends the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD)...