Noerr Digital Day – Digitalisation challenges compliance

“The recently presented draft legal framework for the use of artificial intelligence (AI) is very welcome, also because this shows that the EU Commission is taking a risk-based approach,” says Professor Peter Bräutigam, a partner at Noerr and moderator of the Noerr Digital Day, at which several hundred experts are discussing current legal issues of digitalisation virtually today. Bräutigam is also presenting the first survey results of a study currently prepared by Noerr and the Technical University of Munich on the issue of digital compliance.

“The draft was long overdue, because artificial intelligence is currently operating in a largely lawless space, also in Europe,” emphasizes Bräutigam, who also warns: “On the other hand, it is to be hoped that the legislator does not tighten the regulatory screw even further in the legislative process. Otherwise there is a danger that we will once again lag behind other economic regions in the development and use of new technology.”

The legislative initiative from Brussels also shows that companies must take greater account of compliance risks when developing and using AI. “This applies generally to all compliance risks associated with digitalisation,” says Bräutigam. This includes compliance risks resulting from digitalisation in the areas of data protection and data security, copyright, or competition and antitrust law.

However, German companies lack the necessary digital compliance capacities. According to an initial analysis of the data of the study planned for publication this autumn, 70 percent of the respondents stated that they did not have a specific body responsible for digital compliance risks in their companies. “Establishing a special position in charge of digital compliance should be seriously considered by companies in order to effectively cope with compliance risks resulting from digitalisation – the company’s IT department must not be left alone with this,” Bräutigam points out. The study is currently being prepared by Peter Bräutigam and Dr Sophia Habbe, co-head of Noerr’s Compliance & Internal Investigations practice, in collaboration with Professor Dirk Heckmann, who holds the Chair for Digital Compliance Law and Security at the Technical University of Munich (TUM School of Governance).

The diverse opportunities and challenges for companies from all sectors are the topic of the panel discussions and workshops at the virtual Noerr Digital Day. The focus will be on innovation cooperation, innovative concepts for IT services in carve-outs from corporate structures and the new rules set or to be set by the recently enacted 10th Amendment of the German Act Against Restraints of Competition (GWB) and the announced Digital Services Act of the EU Commission.

In addition to the discussion panels, the participants of the virtual Noerr Digital Day are meeting in workshops dealing with such topics as coping with cyberattacks, platform regulation, as well as the digitalisation and commercialisation of health data.

The speakers include Dr Henrik Hahn (CDO, Evonik Industries AG), Dr Guido Brinkel (Head of Regulatory Policy, Microsoft), Grania Holzwarth (Head of EU Competition Policy, Deutsche Telekom), Dr Andreas Liebl (CEO, UnternehmerTUM GmbH) and Dr Johannes Rabus (Senior Legal Counsel IT Law, Bayer AG).