"If your partner in Munich mishandles customer data, or your reseller in Paris uses a "black box" AI tool to generate deceptive ads, it isn't just their reputation on the line. It's yours. With the EU AI Act now in full swing and GDPR entering its "mature enforcement" era, the distance between a partner's mistake and your company's $20 million fine has never been shorter."
"While GDPR felt like a fire drill in 2018, today it is the floor, not the ceiling. The focus in 2026 has shifted from "Do you have a privacy policy?" to "Can you prove the lineage of your data?" For CPMMs, this means ensuring partners aren't just "buying lists" and claiming they have "legitimate interest." If your partners are uploading leads into your CRM, you need an automated audit trail of how that consent was captured."
Compliance by channel partners has become a core brand issue with immediate financial and reputational exposure under mature GDPR enforcement and the EU AI Act. Risk-based regulation now demands proving data lineage and maintaining automated audit trails for consent when partners upload leads into upstream systems. Channel managers must prevent partner misuse of customer data and unvetted AI tools that produce deceptive marketing. Stopping compliance leaks requires contractual controls, approved asset libraries, automated consent capture, partner onboarding, monitoring and incident response aligned with regulatory obligations. Effective partner management blends legal guardrails with scalable operational and technical controls.
Read at Business Matters
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