UK law
Data (Use and Access) Act 2025 (Commencement No 5) Regulations 2026 made
The Data (Use and Access) Act 2025 (Commencement No 5) Regulations 2026 SI 2026/31 have been made to bring certain provisions of the Data (Use and Access) Act 2025 into force on 6 February 2026. Section 138(2) inserts new sections 66E, 66F, 66G and 66H into the Sexual Offences Act 2003 to provide for new offences relating to creating (section 66E), or requesting the creation of (section 66F), purported intimate images of an adult without consent or reasonable belief in consent. New section 66G sets out relevant definitions that apply to those offences, and new section 66H extends the time limit that applies to these offences, so that prosecutions can be brought at any time that is both within six months from when sufficient evidence comes to the prosecutor’s knowledge, and within three years from when the offence was committed. Section 138(3) makes a consequential amendment to section 79(5) of the 2003 Act. The effect of the amendment is to exclude new sections 66E, 66F and 66G from the definition that otherwise applies to references to an “image of a person” under Part 1 of the 2003 Act. Section 138(4) inserts new section 177DA into the Armed Forces Act 2006 to make sure that where a person commits an equivalent service offence, courts within the Service Justice System may make a deprivation order in respect of the image to which the offence relates, and anything containing it. Such an order could be used to deprive the offender of ownership of the image or anything containing the image, such as a mobile phone, laptop or hard drive. Section 138(5) amends Schedule 3 to the Serious Crime Act 2007(3), to include new section 66F of the 2003 Act, meaning that a person cannot be guilty under sections 45 or 46 of that Act of encouraging or assisting an offence under section 66F of the 2003 Act. Section 138(6) inserts a new section 154A into the Sentencing Act 2020(4) to ensure that where a person commits an offence under section 66E of the 2003 Act, courts have the power to make a deprivation order in respect of the image to which the offence relates, and anything containing it.
ICO issues fine for unlawful marketing
The ICO has issued a monetary penalty notice to Allay Claims Ltd and ZMLUK Ltd (formerly Zuru Media) of £225,000 for sending millions of unlawful marketing messages. From February 2023 to February 2024, Allay Claims sent over 4 million text messages promoting PPI tax refunds and resulted in over 46,000 complaints being submitted to the mobile reporting service 7726. These were sent without valid consent or compliance with the ‘soft opt-in’ exemption under the Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations. As a result, the ICO has fined Allay Claims £120,000. From January to July 2023, ZMLUK sent over 67 million marketing emails promoting a range of services, such as solar energy and storage products, using information sourced from third parties. ZMLUK used this information without carrying out sufficient due diligence checks to understand how consent was obtained. People had not been given clear and informed choices about receiving marketing. Therefore, the ICO has fined ZMLUK £105,000.
EU law
ECJ considers how the Copyright Directive’s private copying exception applies to sales to commercial end users
In bluechip Computer AG v Zentralstelle für private Überspielungsrechte (Case C‑822/24) the Court of Justice of the EU ruled that Article 5(2)(b) of the Copyright Directive (2001/29/EC) must be interpreted as not preventing a national rule under which manufacturers, importers and traders of storage media that may be used for making reproductions are obliged to pay the fair compensation laid down in that provision where that media is sold to commercial end users, except where those manufacturers, importers or traders establish that the storage media is not used by natural persons to make reproductions for private use and for ends that are neither directly nor indirectly commercial, or are used in such a way solely on a scale regarded as not causing more than minimal harm to rightholders.
EuroHPC Regulation amended to strengthen Europe’s AI and quantum capabilities
The European Union has formally adopted an amendment to the EuroHPC Regulation. It aims to support Europe’s strategic autonomy and global competitiveness in high-performance computing, AI and quantum technologies. The amendment enters into force on 20 January. The amended Regulation broadens the mandate of the EuroHPC Joint Undertaking, enabling it to support the deployment and operation of next-generation computing infrastructures, including AI Gigafactories and quantum technologies.
