Hajo Michael Holtz

Short presentation

Teacher and researcher at the Department of Law.

Areas of expertise: IT law, market law, and intellectual property law; research interests: data regulation and protection, the regulation of artificial intelligence (AI), the digital internal market, and AI methods in doctrinal research.

Background in Germany with education from the UK and work experience as a German lawyer, legal counsel and manager within academia.

Keywords

• commercial practices
• copyright law
• artificial intelligence (AI)
• data protection
• IT law
• market law
• GDPR
• digital services
• digital markets
• data law
• AI Act
• AI methods

Biography

My educational background is from Leibniz Universität Hannover (first legal state examination and PhD) and the University of Edinburgh (Master of Laws, Commercial Law). I completed the practical part of the legal education (second legal state examination) in the state of Lower Saxony in Germany. Between 2010-2012 I worked as a German business lawyer at an international law firm in Berlin (Noerr) and as legal counsel at a fintech company in Stockholm (Klarna). Since 2013, I have been active as a teacher and researcher in Sweden and I have worked in various positions and with various assignments, including managerial assignments. I have joined Uppsala University in 2021 (between 2021-2025 at the Department of Business studies).

As Senior Lecturer, I am mainly working with law students as well as students within systems science.

I am a regular speaker at conferences and act as an expert for courts as well as peer reviewer for scientific journals.

Research

The new European IT law, the digital single market and the regulation of data and AI are my main research interests. Many previous research projects have dealt with the exploration of business methods and phenomena in the new digital landscape, such as links on the internet, influencer marketing or data sharing. I have a particular interest in all matters relating to the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and the AI Act (AIA).

I have written the textbook "Swedish and European IT law" which was published 2024 via Norstedts Juridik. The book focuses on commercial IT law and also touches on the latest developments at the EU level, i.a. the Digital Services Act, the Digital Markets Act, the Data Act and the AI ​​Act. The book has been awarded with several scholarships.

At the moment, I am conducting research on the AI Act on questions related to data, data governance and transparency.

I am also experimenting with how AI methods can be integrated into doctrinal research.