AI Omnibus risks creating dangerous regulatory loopholes and weakening consumer protection

BEUC, the European Consumer Organisation, regrets that the final AI omnibus adopted early this morning, aimed to simplify AI rules to boost competitiveness, instead creates a less safe digital environment for consumers as it delays key provisions in the AI Act and creates dangerous loopholes in the scope of the law.  

While negotiations blocked the most harmful proposed changes, this deal still rolls back key consumer protections for uncontrolled processing of previously protected personal data while disproportionately expanding regulatory privileges to larger companies.  

Although it is good news that consumer-facing devices – e.g. medical devices and toys – will remain in the AI Act, BEUC regrets that machinery are exempt from higher scrutiny. This weakens oversight of essential machines that power the everyday life and put consumers at risk when they fail. BEUC is also concerned that this deal allows for the EU to limit core AI Act obligations and exempt certain systems from its requirements at a later point through delegated acts. This could risk further deregulation in the future.

Moving forward, BEUC calls on legislators to strengthen protections for special category data use for AI training in the Digital Omnibus, as the current safeguards in the AI Omnibus are simply not enough to prevent harm.

Agustín Reyna, Director General of BEUC, commented:  

“The AI Act was designed to establish a clear and harmonised baseline of protection for consumers. This AI omnibus rolls back key consumer protections which had barely been adopted a year ago, by removing critical AI systems from the rules and allowing for future delegated acts that could undermine current safeguards. It creates dangerous loopholes and confusion for both businesses and consumers. The rushed process has resulted in a more complex, less effective legislation which expands industry privileges without key consumer protections.  

“Moving forward to the Digital Omnibus on GDPR, we urge legislators to avoid making the same mistakes. Better regulation principles have to be respected to ensure that consumers remain protected to the highest data protection standards."

Additional info

We appreciate the shorter deadline for AI-generated content transparency requirements and the decision to keep obligations to register high-risk AI systems. Still, the reduced registration requirements will ultimately reduce transparency and weaken public oversight of AI systems placed on the market.