An end to ‘lucky legislation’: TAE warns of increasing over-regulation at EU level
Europe is at a political turning point. The EU is increasingly responding to perceived societal risks not with individual responsibility and market-based mechanisms, but with preventive regulation. Protective measures are gradually evolving into proactive government decisions. Two current draft laws – the Digital Fairness Act and the so-called CSA Regulation (Chat Control) – illustrate how this development is increasingly permeating the everyday lives of citizens and businesses.
The Digital Fairness Act ( https://www.digital-fairness-act.com/ ) is intended to prevent the exploitation of individuals’ ‘vulnerability’. In practice, however, this principle leads to the automated suppression of digital advertising for certain groups of people. Imagine someone searching for a florist, a funeral speaker or a service provider following a bereavement. At precisely that moment, the platform may classify that person as “emotionally vulnerable” and hide the advert – not voluntarily, but due to legal liability provisions, in order to minimise risk. The advert does not disappear because the business owner is not allowed to offer it, but because the platform is no longer allowed to display it as a precautionary measure. This does not regulate abuse, but rather the interaction between provider and customer itself – with consequences for visibility, competition and market mechanisms.
Even more serious is the CSA Regulation (https://www.bfdi.bund.de/DE/Fachthemen/Inhalte/Telemedien/CSA_Verordnung.html), better known as “Chat Control”. Its official aim – the protection of children from sexual abuse – is unquestionably legitimate. However, the technology used for this purpose, known as client-side scanning, means that images and files are scanned on the end device before they are transmitted in encrypted form. This creates a permanent surveillance infrastructure for all users, regardless of whether there is any suspicion. IT security experts warn that such an architecture not only undermines encryption but also carries a significant risk of abuse – for what begins as child protection can later be technically expanded or misused. A protective measure thus becomes a means of structural control.
These two projects illustrate a political trend: the state is increasingly blurring the lines between precaution and intervention. Citizens are no longer viewed primarily as responsible individuals, but rather as potentially vulnerable subjects who must be regulated. Entrepreneurs, in turn, are under general suspicion of creating risks that must be countered preventively. Thus, the understanding of freedom, market order and the logic of state responsibility is changing – without this development being openly discussed in political terms.
To maintain the balance between protection and freedom, clear legal guidelines are now required:
- Impact assessment for legislative purposes:
No law should be passed without a transparent, rigorous and comprehensive impact assessment for citizens and businesses. - Clear target: 25% reduction in bureaucracy. New regulations must not increase in parallel with existing promises of relief. Economic recovery requires genuine, not merely rhetorical, relief.
According to EUR-Lex, 1,835 EU legislative acts were adopted between January and October 2025 alone! The Commission bears primary responsibility for this!
Source: https://eur-lex.europa.eu/statistics/2025/legislative-acts-statistics.html?locale=de
- A clear commitment to the free market economy:
The state is not a business. Preventive intervention in market decisions must not become the new political norm.
- More EU where necessary – less EU where possible:
The EU should be strong where it creates real added value – and step back where it replaces private or economic decisions. The principle of subsidiarity must apply!
The drafting of the Digital Fairness Act and the CSA Regulation is not yet complete. Now is the right time for political adjustments, before protective measures become permanent regulation and precautionary measures lead to creeping disempowerment and a mania for control.
Brussels/Munich, 23 October 2025
Rudolf G. Maier, Press Officer