With Leave ahead in the Polls and 1 week to go, is there opportunity as well as risk for the Sector?

Opinion polls showing a swing and narrow lead to “Leave” mean the UK’s Referendum is now genuinely “too close to call” and the EU’s 2nd economy could really exit the Union. One thing that’s certain is that no one knows for sure what would happen after a Leave vote. But thinking ahead is still vital.

What do we know?

Back in February, our Constitutional Change Task Force summarised the legal fundamentals, including some of the Brexit issues for the technology, media and telecommunications sector. At the bottom of this post you’ll find a few examples of potential sector impacts.

Divorced but still together?

Many commentators (including a number of my colleagues) make a strong case that, in many of the areas most relevant to TMT, Brexit will mean little real change. The UK is so deeply integrated within the single market that it will always align with the EU’s approach to issues like privacy, technology product standards and consumer protection for digital content. And in other areas – competition and economic regulation – the UK’s approach has often led EU thinking; so why diverge now?

In short, business will see little underlying change as the UK and EU will remain, in practice, a single market. Divorced but still living under the same roof.