UK and India eschew dedicated AI laws despite EU compliance pressure

This decentralized approach creates a regulatory vacuum that streaming and media companies must fill with robust internal governance. For video platforms, the immediate implication is that licensing for training data remains legally ambiguous, particularly as Indian courts weigh whether AI ingestion constitutes 'fair dealing.' In the broader ecosystem, the EU AI Act is becoming a global benchmark by default, forcing non-EU firms into high-risk compliance tiers to maintain market access. Industry leaders should track the Delhi High Court's pending final judgment in ANI Media v. OpenAI, as it will likely define the price of news content ingestion for global LLM providers.

The global divergence in AI regulation has sharpened in 2026. While the UK and India favor existing laws, the EU AI Act entered full effect on August 2, 2026, establishing the world's strictest compliance regime. Per the Business Times (August 2026), failure to comply with EU standards can result in fines up to €35 million or 7% of global revenue. This 'Brussels effect' is already forcing multinational firms to align their global internal policies with EU values to avoid fragmented model development. In the UK, the Keir Starmer administration has notably omitted a standalone AI bill from the 2026 King's Speech, opting instead for targeted initiatives like the Legal Services AI Growth Lab to reduce adoption barriers (per Computer Weekly, August 2026).

In India, the judiciary has become the primary battleground for AI policy. On July 24, 2026, the Delhi High Court dismissed a request for an interim injunction by news agency ANI against OpenAI. According to Reuters and Chambers (July 2026), the court observed that storing copyrighted material for AI training may qualify as protected 'fair dealing' for research purposes under the Copyright Act of 1957. This makes India one of the first major jurisdictions to issue a judicial marker favoring AI developers at the interim stage. Simultaneously, India's Digital Personal Data Protection Act is moving toward full enforcement in May 2027, with 2026 designated as the critical window for organizations to operationalize consent architectures (per Fortra, April 2026).

Meanwhile, US policy has shifted toward a market-led environment following the revocation of previous executive orders on AI safety. This leaves UK and Indian firms navigating a high-friction landscape between US deregulation and EU oversight. As noted by the UK's Financial Conduct Authority in mid-2026, technology is currently moving markets 'dramatically faster' than the frameworks intended to govern them, increasing the reliance on private contractual indemnities to manage liability.