EU Legislation: Regulations, Directives, Trade Secrets, Data, AI

Posted on Mar 2, 2025 in Political Sciences

Types of Legislation

Regulations: Binding legislative acts that apply in all EU member states to create common rules and standards.

Directives: Set out goals that all EU countries must achieve. However, each country is free to decide how to achieve these goals through their own national laws.

Euro Area and EU Outlook

Despite challenges (war, inflation, energy crisis), the EU has shown resilience and may avoid recession. Key economic indicators to watch include inflation and GDP.

Trade Secrets

A trade secret is a valuable piece of information for an enterprise, treated as confidential, that gives it a competitive advantage. It is distinct from industrial and intellectual property.

  • Directive 2016/943 standardizes laws regulating trade secrets across the EU.
  • In Spain, Law 1/2019 on Business Secrets (BS) governs trade secrets.
  • Protection includes stopping the use and disclosure of trade secrets, removal of infringing goods, and compensation for damages.
  • Trade Secret Musts:
    • Be commercially valuable.
    • Be known by few people.
    • Have measures adopted to keep it secret (e.g., confidentiality agreements).
  • Trade secrets can be used in combination with industrial and intellectual property.
  • Trade secret protection does *not* affect the freedom of expression and the right to information of journalists.
  • Companies cannot use trade secrets to hide information on matters of public interest, such as public health, environment, or consumer safety.

Data Protection

Data protection is regulated by the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), which came into effect in 2018.

GDPR imposes obligations on organizations to:

  • Obtain valid consent from data subjects.
  • Provide clear information about the processing of data.
  • Implement measures for data security.
  • Notify data breaches to authorities.

GDPR provides data subjects with the following rights:

  • Right to access personal data.
  • Right to rectify inaccuracies.
  • Right to erasure (‘right to be forgotten’).
  • Right to data portability.
  • Right to object to the processing of their data.

Fines for non-compliance can be up to €20 million or 4% of annual global turnover, whichever is higher.

Artificial Intelligence (AI)

The EU promotes the development of AI, focusing on trustworthy and ethical AI systems.

  • In April 2019, the European Commission published guidelines for the use of AI, emphasizing human oversight, transparency, and accountability.
  • The European Parliament established a regulatory framework for AI, adopting a resolution on the civil liability regime in February 2021. This calls for a risk-based approach to regulating AI, emphasizing transparency and accountability.

Legislation and Applicable Law

Primary Regulation: Regulation (EU) No 492/2011, along with Articles 45 and 46 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU), serves as the fundamental norms for the freedom of movement of workers.

Regulation (EU) No 1215/2012 (Brussels I-bis) governs jurisdiction, recognition, and enforcement of judgments in civil and commercial matters.

International Jurisdiction for Employment Contracts

Section 5a of Chapter II of the Brussels I-bis Regulation applies.

Claimant Employee may choose the courts of:

  1. The place where the employer is domiciled or has a branch/establishment.
  2. The place where the employee habitually carries out their work, or the last place they worked.
  3. The place where the establishment employing the employee is or was located.
  4. The place where employment services are temporarily provided (for temporarily posted workers).
  5. A place chosen by mutual agreement between the employee and employer.

Claimant Employer may choose:

  1. The courts of the place where the employees are domiciled.
  2. The courts agreed upon by the parties.

Applicable Law to International Employment Contracts

Regulation (EC) No 593/2008 (Rome I), specifically Article 8, applies. The applicable law can be determined based on:

  1. The law chosen by the parties, provided it doesn’t deprive the worker of mandatory protection.
  2. The law of the country where the employee habitually works.
  3. The law of the country where the establishment through which the worker was contracted is located.
  4. The law of the country most closely connected to the contract, if circumstances indicate a country other than those above.