How to Regulate a Universe that Doesn’t Exist

The European Union is getting increasingly proactive about the metaverse — planning a full policy initiative this year on the topic and launching a slew of commissions along with a “citizens assembly” to establish its priorities for (eventually) regulating the nascent field.

“We’re talking about something that’s not really prevailing yet,” Patrick Grady, a policy analyst at the Center For Data Innovation told me. “There’s going to be a lot of pushback from industry, about how early this initiative is… a lot of these policy issues are yet to emerge.”

It could be years before anything like a “Metaverse Act” is put on the table, Grady told me, despite the flurry of action.

So what, exactly, is Europe looking into? During our conversation Grady pointed to major concerns around consumer protection, specifically data privacy and safety, as well as preserving competition; a report published by the European Parliamentary Research Service last year explains those issues as well as some around legal liability, health risks and accessibility.