Commercially Connected shorts - 8 July 2026

Round-up of knowledge

Welcome to Commercially Connected shorts, our weekly bitesize newsletter summarising the latest updates in UK and EU commercial law.

This week we look at:

• The EU Digital Rulebook in motion: the Digital Omnibus and parallel AI Act developments

• Global AdVocate: advertising and marketing international quarterly newsletter

• Legal Telescope: building the infrastructure of tomorrow – market, regulatory and delivery trends shaping data centers

• Proposed reform of UK Modern Slavery Act 2015 reporting regime

The EU Digital Rulebook in motion: the Digital Omnibus and parallel AI Act developments

EU digital regulation is moving on several fronts, with the AI Act at the centre. Under the Digital Omnibus, one proposal addresses AI and another covers data, privacy and cybersecurity. Alongside that package, the AI Act has its own rollout, including recent guidance on transparency, high-risk classification and AI-generated content marking.

Timelines now matter for AI governance, vendor due diligence and product planning. From 2 August 2026, the AI Act’s transparency obligations become enforceable. Non-compliance can attract fines of up to €15 million or 3% of global turnover. With changes moving in stages, it is easy to misjudge what applies, and when.

On 29 June 2026, the Council adopted the AI Omnibus amendments. Core AI Act obligations remain, but the high-risk rules now move to December 2027 and August 2028. For businesses, the practical change is timing, not direction. Meanwhile, the separate data, privacy and cybersecurity proposal remains further off. Further simplification may follow as the Commission’s Digital Fitness Check reviews the wider rulebook.

For more information see: The EU Digital Rulebook in Motion.

With thanks to Olaf van Haperen, Caroline Lyannaz, Nils Muller, Robbert Santifort, Maarten Stassen and Joanna Kulewska

Global AdVocate: advertising and marketing international quarterly newsletter

Global AdVocate: advertising and marketing international quarterly newsletter: welcome to the sixth edition of Global AdVocate, our international quarterly newsletter providing insights on key legal developments impacting advertising and marketing activity worldwide.

This edition highlights major updates across multiple jurisdictions. These include the implementation of the EU Empowering Consumers for the Green Transition Directive in Finland, Ireland and Italy, with new rules on environmental claims, sustainability labels and greenwashing taking effect from September 2026; China's new measures regulating online marketing of financial products and governance rules for online trading platforms; Ireland's transposition of the European Media Freedom Act alongside new gambling advertising restrictions and alcohol advertising requirements; and the UK's Tobacco and Vapes Act 2026 tightening controls on product promotion, as well as the Sporting Events Bill seeking to introduce new ambush marketing protections.

We also cover Latvia's forthcoming rules on green claims and proposals to centralise supervision of financial services advertising, Bulgaria's updated Consumer Protection Act, and regulatory guidance from Ireland's ASAI, Italy's IAP and AGCOM, and international guidance from the ICC on combating scam advertising and the responsible use of AI in marketing.

This edition also features a detailed summary of recent case law and enforcement actions, addressing topics including influencer marketing disclosure, misleading advertising, telemedicine advertising restrictions, prescription medicine promotion, cross-border pricing rules, gambling advertising and social media transparency requirements.

With thanks to our international IP team.

Legal Telescope: building the infrastructure of tomorrow – market, regulatory and delivery trends shaping data centers

Legal Telescope: Building the infrastructure of tomorrow – market, regulatory and delivery trends shaping data centers: read our latest thought leadership report for practical insights from our global team of lawyers on the forces reshaping digital infrastructure and the legal, regulatory, and commercial issues emerging across the data center market.

Driven by AI, cloud computing, and high-performance workloads, data centers have moved to the center of investment, infrastructure planning, and strategic decision-making, creating new pressures and opportunities across power, financing, construction, regulation, and operations.

Our newest edition of Telescopeexplores the practical challenges and strategic opportunities shaping the sector, offering actionable guidance on how these connected issues are influencing development, investment, transactions, and risk management across digital infrastructure.

In this edition, we cover: 

• power and site selection: how access to power could shape your growth plans, financing and project viability

• regulation and resilience: what evolving rules, such as NIS2, DORA and resilience frameworks, could mean for your governance and compliance approach

• planning, grid and energy pressure: how constraints in key markets could affect development timelines, sustainability commitments and long-term strategy

• investment and M&A priorities: why power, cooling and engineering capability are increasingly important to deal value and execution

• construction and delivery risk: how complex commissioning, equipment shortages and advanced facilities could affect delivery models and contracts

• insurance and risk transfer: how AI-led developments could change your approach to risk allocation, insurance and capital solutions.

Proposed reform of UK Modern Slavery Act 2015 reporting regime

On 30 June 2026 the Immigration and Asylum Bill was presented to Parliament.

This includes proposed changes to the reporting regime under Section 54 of the Modern Slavery Act 2015 (MSA). Section 54 of the MSA currently requires commercial organisations with a turnover of £36 million or more to make an annual slavery and human trafficking statement (Statement). Changes proposed include:

• extending the regime to public authorities with a total budget of not less than an amount to be set out in secondary legislation (presumably to align with the £36 million threshold for commercial organisations)
• prescribing the information to be included in a Statement, to cover issues such as structure, operations and supply chain, risk assessment, policies, due diligence processes, staff training, and effectiveness in ensuring that there is no modern slavery or human trafficking taking place in the organisation’s / authority’s operations or supply chains; and, crucially, if the organisation / authority has nothing to report against any of the prescribed topics it will have to explain why
• requiring the director (or equivalent official) of the relevant organisation / most senior official of the relevant authority, who is signing the Statement, to make a declaration that the Statement is accurate to the best of their knowledge and belief
• enabling the Secretary of State to make regulations requiring Statements and website links to Statements to be submitted to it – this is likely to mean that it will become mandatory for Statements to be uploaded to the existing modern slavery statement registry
• expanding the scope of any statutory guidance that is published to include provisions about the kinds of information to be included in Statements in addition to the prescribed information
• imposition of financial penalties for non-compliance, of up to the higher of £1 million and 1% of the organisation’s total turnover / authority’s total budget

Reform of the MSA regime to make organisations more accountable for modern slavery and human trafficking in their operations and supply chains has been long awaited. Critics will be disappointed that the proposed changes do not go further and introduce mandatory human rights due diligence to bring the UK more in line with the EU CSDDD regime.

We will monitor this Bill as it progresses through Parliament. Organisations should also monitor progress and prepare to comply with more stringent MSA reporting. Procurement processes, contract terms, and policies and training for both staff and external contractors will all need to be reviewed and updated to reflect the final form changes.