> why don't they simply consult a lawyer?

Sure. Are you offering to pay?

Do coupons for your hosting provider count as payment?

Yes because reading and interpreting an 11 chapter 99 section law is really simple…

So now every website owner should have to consult a lawyer who his technical enough to understand the intricacies of the law?

Mmmmm... There's a lot of tutorials about the general guidelines of GDPR on internet.

Then:

- either it's a simple website for fun... and then, why is tracking users so vital?

- or it's a real business, with real money... and then you should have a lawyer anyway for GDPR and others

So I’m going to trust a random website with a general overview?

And the alternative is to have to pay lawyers every time I want to start a business on the web?

And people wonder why the tech scene in the EU is so far behind…

I still don't get the argument.

> And the alternative is to have to pay lawyers every time I want to start a business on the web?

I thought it was pretty commonplace to hire a lawyer to draft various application, bylaws, policies and stuff like that when founding a company, online or not.

> Yes because reading and interpreting an 11 chapter 99 section law is really simple…

GDPR really is very simple at the core: you are not allowed to collect personal information, unless. 99% of it are definitions of those exceptions.

> I thought it was pretty commonplace to hire a lawyer to draft various application, bylaws, policies and stuff like that when founding a company, online or not.

No it’s not. You can go to nolo.com and pay less than $300 to get incorporated

https://www.nolo.com/legal-encyclopedia/forming-corporation

Even if you choose to hire a lawyer to do it, it’s a relatively simple process and it would cost a lot more to hire a lawyer who knows the technicalities of something like the GDPR and whether it’s applicable to your website.

Should I also include the lawyer in my product planning meeting?

> GDPR really is very simple at the core: you are not allowed to collect personal information, unless. 99% of it are definitions of those exceptions.

If it’s so simple, then why is it 99 sections and 11 chapter.

I would say yes, all businesses looking to make money need to invest money into all sorts of things to do this, including a lawyer. Even the smallest business should consult with counsel during the product design phase to ensure what they are building is legal. This doesn't seem to me to be unreasonable. Every company I have ever worked for, large and small, has had at least one lawyer weigh in on the product. You'd be careless not to.

No all businesses that want to make money do not hire a lawyer to vet their businesses and especially not their website design. Neither do they need to.

And you really don’t see why all of the ridiculous regulation in the EU might be part of the reason that no meaningful tech company comes out of the EU.