GREECE Law and Practice Contributed by: Nikos Nikolinakos, Dina Kouvelou and Alexis Spyropoulos, Nikolinakos & Partners Law Firm
Key Legal Considerations for TMT Companies Integrating Emerging Technologies
• include charges covering all the components; and • foresee all possible risks that may lead to a breach of contract or exposure to liabilities. Depending on the technology agreement, vari - ous chapters of the Civil Code may be applica - ble (ie, sales contracts, work contracts, service contracts). Due to the rapid development of technology and services provided via the inter - net, one of the challenges is the impossibility to include these agreements within the categories of Greek legislation. Customisation Some companies prefer a customised IT solu - tion not through a licensing model, but through a software development agreement or an SaaS agreement (or PaaS). Other companies prefer the licensing agreement with the customisa - tion it offers; this customisation, alongside the integration that may be required, creates a new set of provisions that need to be included in the agreement, especially referring to timelines, failures, rectifications and quality controls. In certain regulated industries, such as banking, the entities involved provide a complete set of services that an interested party may outsource to them, including technology services, appli - cable licences, monitoring, etc (ie, banking as a service). This type of agreement is not yet com - mon among the IT service providers established in Greece. However, due to the development of new technologies such as AI and cloud comput - ing, technology agreements are expected to be used frequently in the near future. Maintenance Service level agreements must be carefully drafted to include such items as the availabil - ity uptime, back-ups, disaster recovery, sched - ules of maintenance, and support means and
Companies in the TMT sector integrating AI must focus on three key legal considerations: • data protection and privacy laws mandate transparency, accountability and the law - ful processing of personal data used in AI systems, ensuring individuals' rights are respected; • cybersecurity is critical to protect AI systems and their underlying data from breaches and unauthorised access, which could compro - mise sensitive information or operational integrity; and • the EU AI Act introduces specific obligations for high-risk AI systems, including mandatory impact assessments to identify and mitigate risks to fundamental rights. 7. Challenges with Technology Agreements 7.1 Legal Framework Challenges Licensing Model In Greece, technology agreements are mainly regulated by the Civil Code and the Commer - cial Code. Scope of the agreement Although technology agreements usually take the form of software licences, some are much more complex. In many cases, the organisa - tion procuring the technology services provides a solution that includes multiple components. This is important to bear in mind when drafting a technology agreement so as to: • avoid any ambiguity; • explicitly describe the parties’ obligations;
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