Liability rules for the age of Artificial Intelligence

Matt Allison is Senior Public Policy Manager at Vodafone Group, covering Data, Platforms and Artificial Intelligence. Matt has worked at the cutting edge of tech public policy for a decade in a variety of roles spanning industry, consultancy and NGOs. During this time, he has grappled with some of the key public policy challenges facing the technology sector and helped shape the policy landscape as governments and regulators look to confront and harness the rapid growth of digital services.

At Vodafone, Matt is responsible for developing policy and regulatory strategies for data, AI and digital platforms, influencing new regulation and creating alignment between Vodafone’s local market activities. Prior to joining Vodafone Matt was a Manager in the International Public Policy team at Access Partnership, the leading government affairs consultancy in the technology sector where he helped to establish and grow the firm’s Brussels practice, as well as working in the NGO sector focused on the development of Internet safety policy. Matt holds a Master’s degree in Politics, Security and Integration from the School of Slavonic and East European Studies (SSEES), part of University College London. His studies focused on Russian and Eastern European politics, European integration and national identity. Prior to this Matt obtained a Bachelor’s degree in History at the University of East Anglia where he specialised in Soviet history and English economic and social history.

Alexandre Biard is a Senior Legal Officer at BEUC – the European Consumer Organisation working in the Consumer Rights and Enforcement/Redress teams. He is also a senior affiliated researcher and lecturer at the University of Rotterdam. Previously, he worked as a postdoc researcher, and as a qualified lawyer in Paris and Brussels.

Miriam Buiten is a CERRE Research Fellow and Assistant Professor of Law and Economics at the University of St.Gallen, Switzerland. She leads a research team on “Platform Governance”, funded by the University of St.Gallen Basic Research Fund. Her research focuses on the legal issues surrounding new technologies and artificial intelligence and the role of competition law in regulating the digital economy.

Previously, Miriam was a Junior Professor of Law and Economics at the University of Mannheim. She has been involved in several policy studies for the European Commission and the Dutch government on topics such as the role of online intermediaries in the ecommerce sector and mechanisms to reduce regulatory burdens.

Alexandre de Streel is the Academic Director of the digital research programme at the Brussels think-tank Centre on Regulation in Europe (CERRE), professor of European law at the University of Namur and visiting professor at the College of Europe (Bruges) and SciencesPo Paris. He sits in the scientific committees of the Knight-Georgetown Institute (US), the European University Institute-Centre for a Digital Society (Italy) and the Mannheim Centre for Competition and Innovation (Germany).

His main research areas are regulation and competition policy in the digital economy (telecommunications, platforms and data) as well as the legal issues raised by the developments of artificial intelligence. He regularly advises the European Union and international organisations on digital regulation.

Previously, Alexandre held visiting positions at New York University Law School, the European University Institute in Florence, Panthéon-Assas (Singapore campus), Barcelona Graduate School of Economics and the University of Louvain. He also worked for the Belgian Deputy Prime Minister, the Belgian Permanent Representation to the European Union, and the European Commission. He has also been the chair of the expert group on the online platform economy, advising the European Commission.

Professor Martin Peitz is a former CERRE Research Fellow and Professor of Economics at the University of Mannheim. He is also a Director of the Mannheim Centre for Competition and Innovation.

His policy research focuses on digital markets, regulation, and competition economics.

Martin holds a PhD in Economics from the University of Bonn.

Daniel Schönberger is a Swiss technology lawyer with 19 years of experience in the IT and internet industries. He has been leading the Google Legal Department for Switzerland and Austria since 2008 and is responsible for the entire portfolio. He supports the Google Government Affairs and Public Policy teams on legal questions around artificial intelligence and counsels the company on the responsible development of AI. His core focus is on copyright and data protection law as well as on outsourcing and cloud projects.

Daniel Schönberger holds an LLM from the University of Edinburgh in Medical Law and Ethics and also conducts academic work around ethical and legal questions relating to emerging technologies. He is a member of the Advisory Board of the Marie Curie – European Joint Doctoral Programme in Law, Science, and Technology – RIoE (Rights of Internet of Everything), a member of the Executive Board of the Research Center for Information Law of the University of St.Gallen and a member of the Board of Trustees of the Academy of European Law.

Dirk Staudenmayer is the Head of Unit for Contract Law of the Directorate-General Justice and Consumers at the European Commission.

He has fulfilled various positions in the European Commission, including being an assistant to the Director-General and Head of Unit for Financial Services and redress at the DG Health and Consumers. He is also teaching as an Honorary Professor at the Law Faculty of the University of Münster (Germany) and is an author of numerous publications in particular in the areas of European contract, consumer and IT law.

After undertaking his law studies in Germany and France, Dirk Staudenmayer was awarded a PhD magna cum laude from the University of Bonn (Germany).

Axel Voss became a Member of the European Parliament in 2009, representing the electoral district of Middle Rhine, which includes the cities of Cologne, Bonn and Leverkusen and the districts Rhein-Sieg and Rhein-Erft.

Mr Voss is a member of the European People’s Party group. Since 2017, he is the political group’s speaker for the Committee on Legal Affairs as well as member of the Committee on Legal Affairs and substitute member of the Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs.

Besides European Law, Voss’s main area of expertise is the digitialisation of daily life. Mr Voss will be in charge of drafting the AIDA Committee’s final report on AI in the European Parliament; previously, he was the rapporteur of the report on a civil liability regime for artificial intelligence as well as on the Copyright Directive in the digital single market and also shadow rapporteur of the report on corporate due diligence and corporate accountability.