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Fredericka Argent

Fredericka Argent is a special counsel in Covington’s technology regulatory group in London. She advises leading multinationals on some of their most complex regulatory, policy and compliance-related issues, including data protection, copyright and the moderation of online content.

Fredericka regularly provides strategic advice to companies on complying with data protection laws in the UK and Europe, as well as defending organizations in cross-border, contentious investigations and regulatory enforcement in the UK and EU Member States. She advises global technology and software companies on EU copyright and database rights rules, including the implications of legislative developments on their business. She also counsels clients on a range of policy initiatives and legislation that affect the technology sector, such as the moderation of harmful or illegal content online, rules affecting the audiovisual media sector and EU accessibility laws.

Fredericka represents right owners in the publishing, software and life sciences industries on online IP enforcement matters, and helps coordinate an in-house internet investigations team who conduct global monitoring, reporting, notice and takedown programs to combat Internet piracy.

In a recent addition to the EU’s evolving digital rulebook, the European Commission has published a set of Guidelines under the European Media Freedom Act (“EMFA”). The Guidelines advise very large online platforms, as defined under the Digital Services Act (“DSA”), on how to set up a functionality that lets media organisations identify themselves—and, in

Continue Reading European Commission Issues Guidelines on Article 18 of the European Media Freedom Act

In June 2025, the European Parliament (“EP”) published its draft report on “Copyright and generative artificial intelligence – opportunities and challenges” (available here). The draft report calls on the European Commission to make a series of changes to the way that copyright is protected in the age of generative AI (“GenAI”). The EP notes the challenges in finding a balance between respecting existing laws and protecting the rights of content creators on the one hand, while not hindering the development of AI technologies in the European Union on the other. In its report, the EP focuses on the perceived copyright-related risks posed at the GenAI training stage and the GenAI output stage.Continue Reading European Parliament Proposes Changes to Copyright Protection in the Age of Generative AI

The European Commission (“Commission”) recently launched two stakeholder consultations under the EU AI Act. The first (see here), closing on 9 January 2026, relates to the copyright-related obligations for General Purpose AI (“GPAI”) providers under the AI Act and GPAI Code of Practice. The second (see here), closing on 6 January 2026

Continue Reading European Commission Launches Consultations on the EU AI Act’s Copyright Provisions and AI Regulatory Sandboxes

On 28 June 2025, the European Accessibility Act (“EAA”)—a 2019 directive—will begin applying to covered products and services.  The EAA imposes various obligations on technology and online service providers among others, requiring them to ensure that the products and services that they offer in the EU are made accessible to consumers with disabilities. According to its recitals, the goal of the EAA is to increase the availability of accessible products and services in the EU and improve the accessibility of information provided to consumers about those products and services.Continue Reading European Accessibility Act: June 2025 deadline has arrived

On April 3, 2025, the Budapest District Court made a request for a preliminary ruling to the Court of Justice of the European Union (“CJEU”) relating to the application of EU copyright rules to outputs generated by large language model (LLM)-based chatbots, specifically Google’s Gemini (formerly Bard), in response to a user prompt. This Case C-250/25 involves a dispute between Like Company, a Hungarian news publisher, and Google Ireland Ltd.Continue Reading CJEU Receives Questions on Copyright Rules Applying to AI Chatbot

In case you missed it before the holidays: on 17 December 2024, the UK Government published a consultation on “Copyright and Artificial Intelligence” in which it examines proposals to change the UK’s copyright framework in light of the growth of the artificial intelligence (“AI”) sector.   

The Government sets out the following core objectives for a new copyright and AI framework:

  • Support right holders’ control of their content and, specifically, their ability to be remunerated when AI developers use that content, such as via licensing regimes;
  • Support the development of world-leading AI models in the UK, including by facilitating AI developers’ ability to access and use large volumes of online content to train their models; and
  • Promote greater trust between the creative and AI sectors (and among consumers) by introducing transparency requirements on AI developers about the works they are using to train AI models, and potentially requiring AI-generated outputs to be labelled.

In this post, we consider some of the most noteworthy aspects of the Government’s proposal.Continue Reading UK Government Proposes Copyright & AI Reform  

Facial recognition technology (“FRT”) has attracted a fair amount of attention over the years, including in the EU (e.g., see our posts on the European Parliament vote and CNIL guidance), the UK (e.g., ICO opinion and High Court decision) and the U.S. (e.g., Washington state and NTIA guidelines). This post summarizes two recent developments in this space: (i) the UK Information Commissioner’s Office (“ICO”)’s announcement of a £7.5-million fine and enforcement notice against Clearview AI (“Clearview”), and (ii) the EDPB’s release of draft guidelines on the use of FRT in law enforcement.Continue Reading Facial Recognition Update: UK ICO Fines Clearview AI £7.5m & EDPB Adopts Draft Guidelines on Use of FRT by Law Enforcement

Artificial intelligence (“AI”) is expanding in many industries and could add approximately $13 trillion to the global economy by 2030.  Many organizations, both public and private, have invested substantial resources in AI research and development (R&D).  The United States, the European Union, Canada, China and many other countries have developed, or are developing, a
Continue Reading 10 Best Practices for Artificial Intelligence Related Intellectual Property

By Fredericka Argent and Hannah Edmonds-Camara

This is the final instalment in our series looking at accessibility in the workplace. Part 1 looked at the importance of deploying accessible IT in order to benefit employees and businesses. Part 2 examined national equality laws requiring businesses to make “reasonable accommodations” for employees in the workplace. In part 3, we set out how industry standards are playing an increasingly important role in helping organizations demonstrate compliance with accessibility requirements.

In this final instalment, we look at practical steps businesses can take to improve their accessibility credentials.

Practical steps

In light of the increasing importance of ensuring workplace accessibility and diversity, both as good business practice and in order to meet legal obligations, it is advisable that enterprises start pushing accessibility higher up the agenda. Companies can kickstart this process by reviewing their policies on workplace inclusion, procurement of IT and accessibility in the recruitment process.Continue Reading Accessibility In The Workplace: What Businesses Need To Know: Part 4

By Fredericka Argent and Hannah Edmonds-Camara

Part 1 of our accessibility series explored the importance of businesses deploying accessible IT to recruit and retain employees with a view to reducing job polarization and inequality. Part 2 described how national equality laws are imposing affirmative obligations on businesses to make “reasonable accommodations” in the workplace for employees with disabilities — which may include ensuring that IT devices and services are enabled with accessibility functions.

This third instalment in our series looks deeper into the compliance landscape, at global rules and standards in the U.S., EU and beyond. Although many of these standards currently apply to public sector entities, rather than private entities, we expect this to change as technology transforms the nature of the workplace — not only within back offices and factories, but also on the front-line for customer-facing operations, in sectors such as the hospitality industry and retail.Continue Reading Accessibility In The Workplace: What Businesses Need To Know: Part 3