The Digital Product Compliance Landscape: A Global Reality from Day One

In 2024, class action lawsuits under the US Video Privacy Protection Act (VPPA) surged to over 250, as plaintiffs’ firms discovered that embedding third-party video players on websites without proper consent mechanisms could expose companies to liability. This wave of litigation accelerated rapidly, with multiple settlements running into millions of dollars.

The defendants in these cases were not careless companies operating in legal grey areas. They were ordinary businesses that had embedded a video player the way everyone embeds a video player. The compliance landscape looks like this now: sprawling, fast-moving, and full of exposure that product teams have no idea exists.

A similar phenomenon was observed around the same time with California’s Invasion of Privacy Act (CalOPPA), which became the basis for another wave of litigation targeting session replay tools, chat widgets, and analytics pixels. The theory behind these cases is that if a third-party tool captures a user’s session in real-time without prior notice, you may be intercepting an electronic communication.

Courts have been inconsistent, but the volume of cases has been significant enough that major law firms issued standing guidance on how to defend against them. These developments did not come from new regulations. Instead, they came from old laws applied to tools that product teams treat as routine infrastructure.

If your engineering team ships a video embed or deploys a session recording tool without legal review, you are making a compliance decision – one that you may not even realize it is. You don’t get to choose your compliance perimeter. Compliance obligations don’t follow a simple rule based on where you’re incorporated.

Whether a regulation applies depends on a mix of factors, including where you’re established, your sector, your revenue, the type of data you process, and who your users are. A product built in Austin that picks up users in California, Germany, and Canada is immediately in scope for the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA), General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), and Canada’s Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act (PIPEDA) – from the moment the first user signs up.

Unlike a physical business that expands market by market, a digital product is global from the day it launches. Its compliance obligations follow. GDPR applies not only to companies established in the EU but to any organization anywhere that targets EU users. The European Union (EU) has imposed cumulative fines of €5.88 billion since 2018, making clear that “we’re not a European company” is not a defense.

Nearly 20 US states now have comprehensive privacy laws in force or taking effect, each with different thresholds, exemptions, and enforcement mechanisms. The European Accessibility Act came into full enforcement in June 2025, requiring businesses serving EU consumers to meet harmonized accessibility standards – including those based in the US or UK. The EU Whistleblower Directive requires companies above 50 employees to operate secure internal reporting channels, regardless of where their headquarters is located.

Most companies approach this by solving each problem as it arrives. GDPR passes, and they find a cookie consent tool. Accessibility mandate appears, and they bolt on an overlay. Whistleblower Directive takes effect, and they procure a reporting channel. The result is a stack of separate vendors, separate contracts, and separate renewal dates – with no coherent view of where the business actually stands across all of them.

This isn’t a technology failure; it’s a structural one. Compliance obligations across data privacy, accessibility, and transparency requirements don’t arrive neatly spaced – they overlap, interact, and share underlying data. Managing them as isolated problems means managing their intersections badly.

The CRM market used to look like this. So did marketing technology, and security tooling. Each consolidated around platforms once the point-solution approach became unmanageable. Compliance is following the same trajectory – driven by the same force: obligations that have become too numerous and too interconnected to manage one vendor at a time.

The decision hiding inside a product decision

The VPPA and session replay cases both illustrate something worth sitting with: compliance exposure comes from making product decisions, not just compliance ones. The companies that got sued weren’t making compliance decisions; they were making product decisions – embedding a video player or deploying an analytics tool – and the compliance exposure came along for the ride.

This assumption has become genuinely expensive. VPPA settlements, GDPR fines, EAA enforcement, and California’s attorney general securing its largest-ever CCPA settlement in 2025 at $1.55 million have all taken a toll on companies.

Companies that handle this well have made a specific structural choice: they treat compliance obligations not as a legal team’s inbox but as a property of how their product works. Not because regulators demanded it, but because at the scale and speed that digital products now operate across jurisdictions, there is no other way to stay on top of it.

That shift is already underway. The question for any company with a global user base is simply whether they’ve decided to be part of this new reality.

Navigating the Complexity

As companies navigate these complexities, they’ll need to re-evaluate their approach to compliance and product development. Compliance obligations are an integral part of how digital products work, not something added on as an afterthought. By treating compliance as a core aspect of product design, companies can avoid the costly surprises that come from ignoring these issues.

The future of digital product compliance will require a fundamental shift in how we approach regulation and risk management. It’s time to move beyond piecemeal solutions and adopt a more integrated, holistic approach that takes into account the interconnected nature of compliance obligations across data privacy, accessibility, and transparency requirements.

By embracing this new reality, companies can ensure they’re building products that not only comply with regulations but also meet the evolving needs of their users. The decision hiding inside a product decision is no longer just about compliance; it’s about creating digital products that are both user-centric and responsible.

Managing Compliance as Core Product Development

To build products that comply with regulations while meeting user needs, companies must adopt a more integrated approach to compliance. This means treating compliance obligations not as an afterthought but as a core aspect of product design.

Companies can start by identifying their compliance obligations and developing a comprehensive compliance strategy. This should include regular risk assessments, training for employees, and ongoing monitoring of regulatory changes.

Furthermore, companies should prioritize user-centered design principles when developing products that handle sensitive data. This includes implementing robust data protection mechanisms, such as encryption and secure storage, as well as providing users with clear and transparent notices about how their data will be used.

By adopting this approach, companies can ensure that their products not only comply with regulations but also meet the evolving needs of their users. The decision hiding inside a product decision is no longer just about compliance; it’s about creating digital products that are both user-centric and responsible.

Conclusion

The digital product compliance landscape has become increasingly complex in recent years, driven by the growing number of regulations and obligations across data privacy, accessibility, and transparency requirements. Companies must navigate this complexity to build products that comply with regulations while meeting the evolving needs of their users.

By treating compliance as a core aspect of product design and adopting a more integrated approach to compliance, companies can avoid the costly surprises that come from ignoring these issues. It’s time for companies to recognize that compliance obligations are an integral part of how digital products work, not something added on as an afterthought.

As companies move forward, they’ll need to prioritize user-centered design principles, implement robust data protection mechanisms, and develop comprehensive compliance strategies. By doing so, they can create digital products that are both user-centric and responsible – and stay ahead of the rapidly evolving compliance landscape.

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