Startup and scale-up founders across Europe report that fragmented and overlapping digital regulation is slowing innovation, delaying expansion, and making global competition harder. Multiple rules—including GDPR, the AI Act, NIS2, CRA, DORA, and MDR/IVDR—create cumulative operational weight when companies must navigate them simultaneously across 27 member states. Founders say the Single Market still does not feel unified in practice. New independent research based on interviews and survey responses from 150+ founders and operators across EU member states will be revealed in Amsterdam. Reported impacts include delayed market entry, slower procurement cycles, rising compliance costs, blocked product launches, and increased uncertainty about expansion strategies, affecting hiring and product launch decisions.
"Across Europe, startup and scale-up founders are increasingly warning that fragmented and overlapping digital regulation is slowing down innovation, delaying expansion, and making it harder tocompete globally."
"For many companies, the issue isno longer a single regulation. It is the cumulative operational weight of navigating all of them at once across 27 member states."
"Founders interviewed during the research described delayed market entry, slower procurement cycles, rising compliance costs, blocked product launches, and growing uncertainty around expansion strategies."
"Some companies are now factoring regulatory complexity into decisions about where to hire, where to launch products, and whether to scale inside Europe at all."
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