Can You Copy Another App's Regulatory Approach?

The fashion industry learned this lesson the hard way when several clothing rental apps launched across Europe, each assuming they could follow the same regulatory path as their competitors. One app copied the terms and conditions almost word for word from a successful competitor in Germany, only to face enforcement action in France because they had missed the differences in consumer protection laws between the two countries. The thing is, the public-facing compliance documents you can see from other apps only tell part of the story, and copying what appears to work for someone else can lead you straight into legal problems.

What works for one app in one market might be completely wrong for yours, even if you're in the same industry offering similar services

After working on apps across healthcare, finance, and e-commerce for the past decade, I've watched businesses make this mistake repeatedly, assuming that if a competitor is doing something then it must be legal and appropriate for their own situation. The reality is far more complicated than that, and understanding why requires looking at how regulatory frameworks actually work rather than just what you can see on the surface. Different markets have different rules, different enforcement priorities, and different interpretations of what appears to be similar legislation.

Understanding Regulatory Frameworks Across Different Markets

The first thing you need to understand is that regulatory frameworks exist at multiple levels, and they interact with each other in ways that aren't always obvious from the outside. You've got international regulations like GDPR that apply across multiple countries, national laws that might interpret those international rules differently, and sometimes even regional or state-level requirements that add another layer on top.

Take data protection as an example. GDPR sets a baseline across the EU, but each member state has its own supervisory authority with slightly different priorities and interpretation guidelines. An app that handles user data perfectly legally in Sweden might face questions in Austria because the Austrian DPA has a stricter view on legitimate interests as a legal basis for processing. Both countries are following GDPR, but the implementation differs.

The enforcement environment matters just as much as the actual rules written down. Some regulators take a more collaborative approach, offering guidance and working with companies to achieve compliance, while others are more enforcement-focused and will move straight to penalties. This means that two apps doing exactly the same thing might have completely different experiences based purely on where they're operating.

• International frameworks that set broad principles (GDPR, Basel III for banking)
• National laws that implement those principles with local variations
• Industry-specific regulations that add sector requirements
• Regional or state-level rules that create additional obligations
• Self-regulatory bodies and industry standards that might be voluntary or mandatory

The Difference Between Public Compliance Information and Implementation

When you look at another app's privacy policy or terms of service, you're seeing the public-facing end result of their regulatory work, but you're not seeing any of the structure behind it. You don't know what legal advice they received, what risk assessments they conducted, what conversations they had with regulators, or what internal processes they built to deliver on those public promises.

I worked with an e-commerce app that copied the cookie consent approach from a major competitor, thinking they were safe because if a big company with lots of lawyers was doing it that way, it must be correct. The problem was that the competitor had received specific guidance from their data protection officer based on their particular data flows and technical architecture. Our client's setup was different enough that the same approach didn't provide adequate legal coverage, and they had to rebuild their entire consent mechanism after launch. Understanding the real cost of ignoring proper user consent implementation could have saved them significant time and resources.

Before adopting any compliance approach you've seen elsewhere, document your own technical architecture, data flows, and business model first, then check whether that approach actually fits your specific situation rather than assuming it will work

The public documents also don't tell you what complaints or enforcement actions that app might be facing. Just because an app is live in the store with a particular compliance approach doesn't mean that approach is actually compliant... it might just mean they haven't been caught yet or that regulatory action is already underway behind the scenes. This is one of the common issues that can lead to business app projects heading for disaster.

When Following Industry Leaders Makes Sense

There are times when looking at what other apps are doing makes complete sense, but you need to understand when that's appropriate and how to do it properly. Industry standards and common practices do matter, especially when regulations themselves are vague or principle-based rather than prescriptive.

If you're building a fintech app and you see that every major player in your market displays certain risk warnings in a particular way, that's useful information. Not because you should copy it exactly, but because it tells you that there's probably regulatory guidance or market practice that has developed around that requirement. You can then go and find the actual regulatory source rather than just copying the end result.

Industry Standards vs Individual Implementation

The difference is between following established industry standards that represent best practice across multiple companies, and copying one specific competitor's approach to a particular problem. Standards exist because groups of companies, regulators, and technical experts have worked together to define what good looks like. One company's implementation might be their specific interpretation or might even be wrong.

In healthcare apps, for instance, following standards like HL7 FHIR for health data interoperability makes sense because it's a widely accepted standard with clear documentation and regulatory recognition. Copying how one health app displays medical disclaimers without understanding the clinical governance structure behind those disclaimers is completely different. This relates to why you should thoroughly test any features before adding them to your app, particularly in regulated industries where the implications of failure are significant.

Healthcare Apps and Medical Device Classification Differences

Healthcare is where I've seen the most dangerous assumptions about copying regulatory approaches, because the classification of your app determines everything else about your regulatory obligations. An app that tracks menstrual cycles might be a medical device in one jurisdiction and a wellness app in another, depending on the specific claims you make and features you offer.

Medical device classification depends on your intended purpose, your claims, and your actual functionality, not just what category you think you fit into

I worked on a health tracking app where the client wanted to add a feature that provided personalised exercise recommendations based on heart rate data. They pointed to several competitor apps that offered similar features and assumed they could do the same. When we dug into it properly, we found that adding that feature would move them from a wellness app into medical device territory because of the diagnostic and therapeutic claims it implied, requiring completely different regulatory approval processes.

CE Marking and FDA Variations

The medical device rules in Europe and the US take completely different approaches to classification and approval. An app that's a Class I medical device under FDA rules might be Class IIa under the EU Medical Device Regulation, with different conformity assessment procedures and technical documentation requirements. You can't assume that because an app is approved in one market, the same regulatory approach will work in another.

The clinical evidence requirements vary too. FDA might accept one level of clinical validation for a particular feature, while the EU notified body might require additional clinical data to support the same claims. This means that even if you're trying to build exactly the same app as a competitor, your regulatory path might be different depending on timing, your notified body choice, or changes in guidance since your competitor went through the process.

Financial Services Apps and Licensing Variations

Financial services is another area where surface-level similarities hide massive regulatory differences underneath. Whether you need a full banking licence, an e-money licence, a payment institution authorisation, or can operate under someone else's licence through a partnership depends on exactly what activities you're undertaking and how your service is structured legally. For a comprehensive overview of these requirements, our ultimate guide to fintech app development and compliance covers the key considerations for different types of financial applications.

The fact is that two apps that look identical from a user perspective might have completely different licensing arrangements behind the scenes. One might be a licensed payment institution handling transactions directly, while another might be a technology provider working under a sponsor bank's licence. The regulatory obligations are completely different even though the user experience is similar.

1. Identify exactly what regulated activities your app will perform (not just what features you'll offer)
2. Determine which regulatory perimeter those activities fall within in your target markets
3. Understand whether you need your own licence or can operate under a partner's authorisation
4. Map out the ongoing compliance obligations that come with your licensing approach
5. Build internal systems to meet those obligations before launch, not after

Open Banking and PSD2 Implementation

Open banking regulations provide another example of where the high-level framework is consistent across the EU, but national implementation creates variations that matter. PSD2 sets out the requirements for strong customer authentication and access to account information, but each country's regulator has issued different guidance on what that means in practice, and the technical standards continue to evolve.

An app that connects to bank accounts needs to register as either an account information service provider or a payment initiation service provider depending on what it does with that access, and the registration process varies by country. Some regulators have a light-touch approach for low-risk activities, others require full authorisation regardless. You can't just copy a competitor's approach without knowing whether you're even in the same regulatory category. These security considerations are part of the broader enterprise app security threats that businesses can't afford to ignore.

Data Protection Laws and Why Location Changes Everything

Data protection is the regulatory area that businesses most often assume they can copy because GDPR applies across the whole EU and everyone talks about it constantly. But GDPR is a regulation that still requires national implementation laws for certain aspects, and even where the rules are identical on paper, the interpretation and enforcement varies between countries.

Different supervisory authorities have published different guidance on the same topics, and in some cases those interpretations directly conflict with each other. The concept of legitimate interests as a legal basis for processing is a good example... some authorities accept it for a wide range of business purposes, others take a much narrower view and expect consent instead. An app that relies on legitimate interests for certain processing might be fine in one country and face enforcement in another.

Map your actual data flows through your app and document the legal basis for each processing activity separately, rather than having one generic privacy policy that tries to cover everything... this forces you to think through whether your approach actually works rather than just copying text

Then you've got countries outside the EU with their own data protection frameworks. The UK has GDPR as retained EU law but is already starting to diverge in its approach. The US doesn't have a single federal privacy law but has sector-specific rules and a growing patchwork of state laws like CCPA in California. China has strict data localisation requirements. Each of these creates different obligations that you can't meet by copying what works in the EU.

Building Your Own Regulatory Documentation Package

Instead of trying to copy someone else's regulatory approach, you need to build your own documentation package that's specific to your app, your business model, and your target markets. This takes more time upfront but gives you a solid foundation that will actually hold up if you face questions from regulators or users.

Start with a clear description of what your app actually does from a regulatory perspective, not from a marketing perspective. What data do you collect, where does it come from, where do you store it, who do you share it with, what do you do with it. If you're in a regulated sector like healthcare or finance, what regulated activities are you performing, not just what features you're offering. In sectors where user trust is paramount, such as insurance, understanding what makes apps clear and trustworthy becomes essential for both compliance and user adoption.

Documentation That Actually Helps

The documentation you need internally is different from the public-facing policies users see. You need the underlying risk assessments, legal basis documentation, technical security measures, data processing agreements with any third parties, records of decisions about how to implement requirements, and evidence that you've actually built the systems to deliver on your public promises.

For a financial services app we built, the internal compliance documentation was about ten times the length of the customer-facing terms and conditions. It included detailed process maps for identity verification, transaction monitoring, suspicious activity reporting, complaint handling, and financial promotions approval. That internal documentation is what you'd need to show a regulator if they came asking questions, and it's what makes sure everyone in your organisation knows how to maintain compliance day to day. This comprehensive approach ensures your app feels smooth rather than clunky because all the regulatory requirements are properly integrated into the user experience from the start.

Conclusion

The reality is that regulatory compliance isn't something you can shortcut by copying what you see other apps doing publicly. Every app has a different risk profile based on its specific features, business model, technical architecture, and target markets, and the regulatory approach needs to fit those specifics rather than being copied from somewhere else. What you can see from the outside is only a fraction of the compliance work that sits behind any properly regulated app.

Use competitors and industry leaders as a starting point to understand what questions you need to answer and what standards exist in your sector, but then do the work to figure out your own answers based on your specific situation. Get proper legal advice from specialists in your jurisdiction and sector. Build internal systems and processes that actually deliver on your compliance obligations. Document everything so you can demonstrate your approach if needed. That's what separates apps that can scale confidently from apps that end up facing enforcement action because they assumed copying someone else would be enough.

If you're working on an app project and need help thinking through the regulatory requirements for your specific situation, get in touch with us and we can talk about how to build compliance into your app properly from the start.

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