The European Tech Alliance (EUTA) today published its position paper on the European Commission’s Digital Omnibus, welcoming the ambition to simplify EU digital rules while warning that simplification must be delivered in practice, not just on paper.
Representing leading European-born tech companies, EUTA sets out 13 targeted, implementable recommendations to strengthen legal certainty, preserve the GDPR’s risk-based logic and avoid new layers of regulatory complexity that would undermine innovation, scale and competitiveness across the Single Market.
1. Preserve a risk-based GDPR that supports innovation
EUTA calls for targeted clarifications to the GDPR to unlock research and AI development while fully protecting fundamental rights. This includes:
- A workable definition of scientific research that reflects applied and privately funded R&D.
- Restoring legal certainty around special categories of data by limiting their scope to data that inherently reveals sensitive attributes.
- Enabling workable data pools for AI through proportionate, risk-based safeguards rather than unworkable avoidance obligations.
2. Reduce consent fatigue and avoid new digital gatekeepers
The paper warns against creating parallel consent regimes or mandatory browser-level consent mechanisms that would:
- Increase fragmentation and compliance costs,
- Entrench new intermediaries,
- Weaken the direct relationship between users and European digital services.
Instead, EUTA advocates for legal coherence with the GDPR and greater use of privacy-by-design tools.
3. Avoid extending gatekeeper concepts beyond their original scope
EUTA cautions against extending DMA-style gatekeeper concepts into the Data Act, stressing that this would discourage European companies from scaling and reduce consumer access to innovative services.
4. Deliver real simplification across EU digital laws
To ensure the Digital Omnibus delivers tangible benefits, EUTA urges lawmakers to:
- Prevent overly expansive EU-wide DPIA requirements,
- Avoid regulatory duplication under the Data Act,
- Reduce fragmentation in the implementation of NIS2 across Member States.
The following can be attributed to EUTA’s Secretary General, Victoria de Posson
“Simplification only works if it reduces complexity on the ground.”
“The Digital Omnibus should strengthen legal clarity and preserve the GDPR’s risk-based approach, not recreate fragmentation through parallel regimes or new intermediaries. With targeted adjustments, this initiative can genuinely support innovation, trust and Europe’s competitiveness.”
Next Steps
EUTA stands ready to continue a constructive, solutions-oriented dialogue with EU institutions and looks forward to contributing to a final Digital Omnibus that delivers smarter, more coherent rules for Europe’s Single Market.
👉🏻 Find out more and read EUTA’s position paper on the Commission’s Digital omnibus proposal
About the European Tech Alliance
EUTA represents leading European tech companies that provide innovative products and services to more than one billion users. Our 36 EUTA member companies from 16 European countries are popular and have earned the trust of consumers. As companies born and bred in Europe, for whom the EU is a crucial market, we have a deep commitment to European citizens and values.
With the right conditions, our companies can strengthen Europe’s resilience and technological autonomy, protect and empower users online, and promote Europe’s values of transparency, rule of law and innovation to the rest of the world.
The EUTA calls for boosting Europe’s tech competitiveness by having an ambitious EU tech strategy to overcome growth obstacles, making a political commitment to clear, targeted and risk-based rules, and enforcing rules consistently to match the globalised market we are in.
For media inquiries, please contact:Victoria de Posson, EUTA Secretary General
E-mail: victoria@eutechalliance.eu
E-mail: info@eutechalliance.eu
Phone: +32 476 25 08 16
www.eutechalliance.eu
