From opt-in to obligation? : Examining the regulation of globally operating tech companies through alternative regulatory instruments from a material and territorial viewpoint

Modern society’s ever-increasing reliance on technology raises complex legal challenges. In the search for an efficient and effective regulatory response, more and more authorities – in particular the European Union – are relying on alternative regulatory instruments (ARIs) when engaging big tech companies. Materially, this is a natural fit: the tech industry is a complex and rapidly-evolving sector and – unlike the rigid classic legislative process – ARIs allow for meaningful ex ante anticipatory constructions and ex post enforcement due to their unique flexibility. However, from a territorial point of view several complications arise. Although the use of codes of conduct to regulate transnational private actors has a rich history, the way in which such codes are set out under articles 40 and 41 of the EU’s GDPR implies a ‘hardening’ of these soft law instruments that has repercussions for their relationship to the principles of territorial jurisdiction. This contribution serves as a first step for further research into the relationship between codes of conduct, the regulation of the tech industry and the territorial aspects related thereto

Crossing geographical, legal and moral boundaries: the Belgian cigarette black market

Objectives: To describe and analyse the cigarette smuggling trade in Belgium and its role in the international cigarette black market. Design: Analysis of Belgian customs and prosecution files concerning the cigarette smuggling trade in the period 2000 to 2006 and interviews with law enforcement authorities and private tobacco industry. Results: Analyses were made of the geographical aspects, the modus operandi and the participants of the cigarette smuggling trade in Belgium. Belgium is mainly a transit country. The cigarettes are transported via the fine-meshed Belgian highway network to the UK, which is often the destination country of the cigarettes. China is the most popular country of origin, especially for counterfeited cigarettes. In order to transport the cigarettes often use was made of legal transport companies and warehouses were frequently used to store the cigarettes. Many of the persons involved in the Belgian cigarette smuggling trade are strongly connected to legitimate business activities. Conclusions: Belgium is an important transit country for cigarette smuggling to the UK. This study pictures the illicit tobacco trade as a complex, ambiguous phenomenon involving several legal and illegal participants whereby the transit of cigarettes across the licit/illicit divide is paralleled by the moral careers of those who smuggle them, not to mention those who consume them. From the legal world to the illegal and back again, this trade and its practitioners and customers blur the line between criminality and non- criminality. Dealing with this phenomenon therefore requires more than a strategy focusing on these lawbreakers alone

Cross-border shopping in a federal economy

The purpose of this paper is to consider an economy that incorporates cross-border shopping and where the different levels of government are concerned with the well-being of their citizens. We assume a federal economy with a central government and two regions with specific characteristics. Two kinds of externalities, horizontal and vertical, arise and we show the possibilities of internalising them. With the governments of symmetric regions behaving as Nash players, they would optimally set their tax rates and replicate the unitary nation optimum. Finally, we show how the central government as a Stackelberg leader can adjust its fiscal instruments so that the tax externalities are also internalised.