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Foreign experience in the regulation of digital ecosystems in the agricultural sector and directions for its application in domestic practice
The article examines global experience in the legal regulation and development of the digital economy in the agricultural sector and identifies the priority directions for the European integration of the Ukrainian agrotechnology market. It is substantiated that the implementation of the latest technologies and digital models in agriculture significantly outpaces the development of current legislation; therefore, the state must urgently develop reliable rules and laws capable of protecting the rights of ordinary agricultural producers and preventing large international companies from fully monopolizing this market. The purpose of the study is a comparative analysis of foreign regulatory models for big data management, identification of the “bottlenecks” in Ukraine, and formulation of strategic guidelines for building a sustainable digital ecosystem in the agricultural sector. The study employs comparative, systemicstructural, institutional analysis, and the method of regulatory compliance analysis. The article highlights four global models for regulating the formation and functioning of agricultural digital ecosystems, namely: mandatory-protective (EU), liberal-hybrid (USA), principle-oriented (Australia), and centralized-platform (China, India). Based on empirical data from the State Agrarian Register for 2022–2026, the high inclusiveness of Ukraine’s digital public infrastructure has been proven. An institutional duality of domestic regulation was identified, caused by its exclusive focus on fiscal and administrative control, as a result of which the status of non-commercial machine-generated production process data remains outside the scope of legal regulation. It is concluded that such a situation creates threats of agricultural market monopolization by transnational corporations and the emergence of artificial technological dependence of agricultural producers on specific suppliers. Strategic directions for harmonizing Ukrainian legislation with EU acts within the framework of the DT4UA project are substantiated. The necessity of obtaining a European Commission Adequacy Decision in accordance with Article 45 of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) for the integration of the agro-industrial sector into the Digital Single Market has been proven.
Keywords: digital ecosystems, agricultural sector, regulatory and legal framework, digital market regulation instruments, data protection, market monopolization, ownership rights to digital data.
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