July 2022

Regulatory Sandboxes and The EU AI Act

The EU Artificial Intelligence (AI) Act is introducing regulatory sandboxes, which provide an environment for providers to test the compliance of their product before it is launched on the market. The sandboxes offer priority access to small and medium-sized enterprises and encourage member states to develop their own sandboxes. Spain will be piloting a regulatory sandbox aimed at testing the requirements of the legislation and how conformity assessments and post-market activities may be overseen. The pilot is expected to begin in October 2022 and results published by the end of 2023, with other member states potentially joining or developing their own sandboxes. Sandboxes can have benefits to both businesses and regulators but can also have limitations, such as the risk of abuse and potentially delaying innovation.