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SSRN: Davis and Schwemer find 'fairness' carries little operative weight in EU AI rules
In an October 13, 2026 SSRN preprint, Peter Alexander Earls Davis and Sebastian Felix Schwemer examine how fairness functions in the GDPR, Digital Markets Act, Digital Services Act and AI Act across the AI lifecycle. They conclude EU lawmakers have avoided explicit fairness requirements for AI, and that any operative content will likely come from harmonized standards or transparency and non-discrimination duties.
Key points
- GDPR fairness governs the processing of personal data rather than how an AI system treats people, and its content remains contested.SSRN
- Under the Digital Markets Act, fairness mainly denotes the policy goal of fair markets and lacks substantive operative meaning.SSRN
- The Digital Services Act pursues fairness aims through transparency and diligence but never applies the term to an algorithmic process.SSRN
- The AI Act mentions fairness only in recitals; a fairness principle proposed by the European Parliament was dropped.SSRN
- The authors map each instrument onto a four-stage lifecycle covering design, development, deployment and redress.SSRN
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