European Commission Withdraws Draft Rules on Technology Patents, AI Liability and Consumer Privacy

The European Commission (EC) will stop pursuing three draft rules that would have regulated technology patents, artificial intelligence (AI) liability and consumer privacy on messaging apps.

The three draft rules faced opposition from the industries they would have affected, and the EC said it did not expect them to be approved by European Union lawmakers, Reuters reported Wednesday (Feb. 12).

The EC announced its decisions in annexes to a EC work program it released Wednesday.

As a reason for withdrawal of the draft rule having to do with technology patents, the EC said in the annexes: “No foreseeable agreement — the Commission will assess whether another proposal should be tabled or another type of approach should be chosen.”

It listed the same or similar reasons for withdrawal of the draft rules on AI and messaging apps.

The draft rule on patents would have regulated standard essential patents used in telecom equipment, mobile phones, computers, connected cars and smart devices, according to the Reuters report.

The AI Liability Directive would have allowed consumers to sue for harm caused by providers, developers or users of AI technology, the report said.

Another draft rule withdrawn by the EC was known as the “eprivacy regulation” and would have subjected WhatsApp and Skype to the same user privacy rules that apply to telecom providers, per the report.

The EC’s work program focuses on the initiatives it will take over the next year, while the annexes include “evaluations and fitness checks” of newly proposed initiatives, according to a Wednesday press release.

“Citizens and businesses have called for a simpler and leaner European Union,” Ursula von der Leyen, president of the EC, said in the release. “This roadmap charts our course to a more competitive, resilient and prosperous Europe.”

It was reported in January that the EC was reconsidering its investigations into U.S. tech giants ahead of the inauguration of Donald Trump as U.S. president.

In September, when two of the European Union’s top regulators were about to step down from their posts, experts speculated that the organization’s political priorities might change, though new rules introduced in the previous five years would still need to be enforced.