I know several people who help write building codes in the US in various fields, and none of them are incompetent or write code other than to deal with known co

I know several people who help write building codes in the US in various fields, and none of them are incompetent or write code other than to deal with known concerns based on past building performance and materials testing, etc. That there might be a problem with enforcement is more a byproduct of municipal professionalism in general than a problem with building codes. I have never seen hundreds of dollars in my (high cost of living) area for a fireplace inspection, but I guess it might exist as an outlier somewhere. Permits cost more, but that is because we have very low property taxes in California, and they recoup through the permits because they need funding from somewhere. But the building code reference was just to provide an introductory analogy. The sentence you quoted was part of my direct answer to OP's question, which was why the GDPR, and why would people want it.