PS: This is GDPR, not the EU VAT thing (also referred to by the OP). The former is painful but necessary; the latter is a straight-up unmanageable mess created

PS: This is GDPR, not the EU VAT thing (also referred to by the OP). The former is painful but necessary; the latter is a straight-up unmanageable mess created by people with no understanding of the Internet. This is not a monolithic "all regulation good"/"all regulation bad" thing.