Spending a lot of money on something you don't need to do is not 'pragamatic'.

"It's unfortunate that finding the answer to such a simple question seems to require lawyers, "

Yes, and it's the a problem for the EU. While there is definitely a need to have some kind of regulatory elements in place, the degree of complexity involved creates considerable constraints and overhead for ultimately very little gain.

There is probably a version of this legislation, or even better, some kind of 'data treaty' between WTO or OECD nations that makes this work out with a lot less overhead.