Analysis · 15 October 2026

Platform work's deadline is 2 December, and the rules reach past the couriers

Directive (EU) 2024/2831 must be in national law by 2 December 2026. Chapter III catches every person performing platform work, employed or self-employed, and most firms have not read it.

Analysis · 15 October 2026

Software becomes a product on 9 December, and the liability follows it

Directive (EU) 2024/2853 must be in national law by 9 December 2026. Strict liability, the regime that never required proof of negligence, now covers code.

Analysis · 15 October 2026

The AI Act did not pause, and two prohibitions start on 2 December

The high-risk obligations moved to 2027 and 2028. Two new prohibited practices under Article 5(1) did not, and the provider test does not ask what you meant to build.

Analysis · 15 October 2026

Poland's cybersecurity register closed on 3 October, and the real work starts now

No authority designates you under the Polish regime. The register closed on 3 October 2026, the substantive duties land on 3 April 2027, and the head of the entity can be fined personally.

Analysis · 15 October 2026

Every verified deadline between now and the end of December

Nine weeks, eight dates. Greece and Italy on 1 November, UK tax and Companies House in November, then platform work, the AI Act, product liability and the deforestation regulation in December.

Analysis · 15 October 2026

Pay gap reporting arrives before the software does

Most member states missed the 7 June 2026 transposition deadline, and a late transposition does not move the first reporting date of 7 June 2027.

Analysis · 15 October 2026

Six questions Irish companies keep asking, answered with the section that settles each

Dividends, the EEA-resident director and the EUR 25,000 bond, audit exemption after a late filing, the 21 days to register a charge, written resolutions and the 100 days of examinership.

Global Fuel Report

News · Regulatory change explained

The law moved. Read what moved.

Analysis of EU and UK regulatory change, written from the source text with the articles cited and the publication date on every piece. Free to read with a free ComplianceSME account. Members have full access to everything at no extra charge.

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Latest

Analysis · 15 October 2026

Italy's NIS2 basic measures, and what has to be working by 31 October

37 measures and 87 requirements for important entities, 43 and 116 for essential ones, implemented and working by 31 October. The ACN guidance exists only in Italian. Here it is in English.

Analysis · 10 October 2026

A machine fired the drivers. The bill is 824,990,000 euro.

Four data protection decisions, the largest against Uber, every one turning on a rule in force since 2018.

Global Fuel Report · 1 October 2026

Global Fuel Report, 1 October 2026

The Strait of Hormuz is where this week's risk sits.

Analysis · 12 September 2026

The leaders who called compliance too complicated, and what the work costs

Presidents, chancellors, two competitiveness reports and five countries' business bodies have put it on the record. Their words, then the hours.

Analysis · 3 September 2026

The 24 hour clock that starts on 11 September

From 11 September, 24 hours to tell a national CSIRT and ENISA that a product vulnerability is being exploited. The reporting platform has no API.

Analysis · 3 September 2026

The cost of a cross-border deal before anyone signs

Two law firms, two to six weeks, GBP 1,800 to GBP 20,000. What the discovery layer of a cross-border deal costs, and what the same work costs here.

Analysis · 25 August 2026

The Two Rulebooks, the One Person, and the Answer That Is Already Out of Date

Half the compliance profession reports burnout and most small firms have no compliance staff at all. The published record they rely on does not correct itself, and AI search now repeats it. What the evidence shows, and what answers it.

Analysis · 25 August 2026, revised 26 August 2026

Europe Blamed the AI Act. The Delays Were Data Protection Law.

Research from the Centre for the Governance of AI finds data protection law, not the EU AI Act, behind most regulatory delay to AI models reaching Europe. What that misreading now costs a small British firm selling into the European Union.

Analysis · 19 August 2026

The Delay Trap: EU AI Act Rules That Apply Now, and Every EU and UK Compliance Deadline Left in 2026

The most expensive word in European compliance this year is “delayed”. Which EU AI Act duties are live now, which are deferred, and every compliance deadline left in 2026, with the days remaining on each.

Announcement · 17 August 2026

Finally, compliance is not complicated

A small business can now sit down on a Tuesday morning, answer plain questions about how it operates, and stand up an hour later holding a documented compliance position for GDPR, NIS2, the AI Act or any of more than eighty other EU and UK instruments.

Announcement · 14 August 2026

ComplianceSME Completes the Free Business Compliance Libraries of All Twenty-Eight Nations

Every EU member state and the United Kingdom: 24,600 company law duties, organised and free to read, completed 7 August 2026.

The compliance shortage · 7 August 2026

Seven builders for every governor: Europe's compliance shortage has an answer already

Axipro counted seven AI-builder roles for every governance role advertised, and the specialists cannot be hired at any price. On 7 August 2026 ComplianceSME finished the business compliance toolkits of all twenty-eight nations. The answer to the shortage is already built, and a large part of it is free.

EU AI Act · 5 August 2026

The policy moved. The archive did not.

Regulation (EU) 2026/1744 rewrote the EU AI Act's dates six days before they bit. Two years of published guidance now states the wrong law, none of it has been retracted, and AI tools answer from that archive. The fault is not the model.

EU AI Act · 31 July 2026

The Digital Omnibus deferral: what moved, what did not, and what applies now

Regulation (EU) 2026/1744 entered into force on 27 July 2026 and rewrote Article 113 of the EU AI Act six days before the general application date. Most commentary read it as a delay. Half of it was the opposite.

ComplianceSME monitors 116 agent toolkits. When a change matters to small business, the analysis appears here. Members also receive the monthly Policy Shift briefing in their account.

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