Justice / Publication
July 02, 2025

The EU AI Act: Law of Unintended Consequences?

Keywords: regulation of technology, regulatory space, AI Act, EU technology regulation

After long deliberations, the highly anticipated AI Act has entered into force in August 2024. Although it is yet to be seen what the effects of this landmark regulation are going to be with a transitory period of two years, it is important to already prepare for what can be expected and to identify possible dynamics regarding competencies, implementation, and enforcement.

Hence, this article from AlgoSoc member Sabrina Kutscher, PhD researcher at the Tilburg Institute for Law, Technology, and Society (TILT) at Tilburg University, provides a novel perspective of the AI Act by answering the question of what regulatory dynamics can be expected with the AI Act entering the “regulatory space” of AI?

The assumption here is that the AI Act is entering a “regulatory space” that is already somewhat occupied by various public and private actors which have different relevant regulatory resources, both legal competencies, such as enforcement or investigative powers, and extra-legal capacities, like expertise or legitimacy.

The aim of this article is therefore a more expansive mapping of actors and their resources, where power and influence are both contingent upon legal competencies and extra-legal capacities, by combining regulation of technology literature with the regulatory space framework.

This open access article was published in the TILTing 2024 Special Issue of Technology and Regulation. DOI: https://doi.org/10.71265/krne7...

Sabrina Kutscher, The EU AI Act: Law of Unintended Consequences?,Technology and Regulation, 2025, 316-335 • 10.71265/krne7205 • ISSN: 2666-139X