The EDPB's cross-regulatory cooperation work explicitly aims to align the four major EU regimes that touch SaaS: GDPR, DSA, DMA, AI Act. For founders, the takeaway is operational: there is significant overlap. Treating them as four separate compliance programs is waste.
The three overlaps
1. Transparency obligations
GDPR Articles 13/14, DSA Article 14, DMA Article 7, AI Act Article 13 all require user-facing disclosure. The wording differs; the artifact is largely the same. A well-structured privacy policy plus a separate AI use disclosure covers 80% of the four.
2. Documentation and audit trail
GDPR records of processing, DSA periodic reports, DMA notifications, AI Act technical documentation. All require versioned, timestamped, auditable records. One internal documentation system serves all four.
3. User rights and contestation
GDPR DSARs, DSA appeals, DMA complaints, AI Act adverse-decision contests. One inbox, one workflow, one runbook handles them.
| Regulation | Transparency | Documentation | User rights |
|---|---|---|---|
| GDPR | Privacy policy | RoPA | DSARs |
| DSA | T&C, transparency report | Trusted flagger registry | Statement of reasons appeals |
| DMA | Notification of changes | Compliance reports | Business user disputes |
| AI Act | System cards | Technical documentation | Adverse decision appeals |
The DMA and AI Act apply to a smaller universe of SaaS (large platforms / high-risk AI). GDPR applies to everyone with EU users; DSA applies to any service that publishes user content. Check applicability before scaling the binder.
The consolidated 2026 compliance program
- Single privacy policy with sections for each regulation that applies
- Single documentation system (Notion, Confluence, your DMS) with tagged records
- Single user-rights workflow with sub-categorized intake
- Single annual audit reviewing all four regulations
This collapses 4 programs into 1. The cost difference for a 20-person SaaS is around 30-50k EUR/year saved.
Conclusion
Treating EU regulation as one stack instead of four parallel projects saves resources and produces better outcomes. The overlaps are designed; lean into them. Authorities increasingly inspect the consolidated artifacts anyway.
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