Regulation has emerged in the US and the EU to specifically regulate industries using APIs. In the EU, the PSD2 regulation looks to level the competitive banking landscpae with standardized payment APIs. In the US, the Center for Medicaid and Medicare (CMS) requires that all fifty states in the US possess FHIR APIs to drive interoperability between healthcare providers. This is just the direct regulation that has begun to emerge, with other industries following, and more indirect regulation across the tech sector.
You see other signs of regulation in the FTC case against Facebook for anticompetitve practices, but also with Regulations.gov API, and other APIs made available to realize regulations. Through these digital interfaces we will see an unprecedented opportunity to regulate and de-regulate industries in more real-time, helping government and industries keep pace with each other. API regulation is just getting started in the top industries, but are present across almost every other industry going through their digital transformation.
