On Wednesday 23 February, the European Commission presented its proposal for a ‘Data Act’. With this text, a provisional version of which was obtained by EUROPE (see EUROPE 12896/13), the Commission sets the objective, among other things, of specifying who may use the data and in what way. In addition, the proposal also includes provisions on accessibility of data for public bodies, the cloud and guarantees for interoperability of services.
“We want to give consumers and businesses more control over what can be done with their data”, said Margrethe Vestager, Executive Vice-President for a Europe fit for the Digital Age.
As a reminder, the Commission’s proposal intends to give more power to users, who could - in addition to easy access - ask an entity holding their data to pass it on to third parties. Special provisions would apply to small and micro enterprises, which would be exempt from these obligations under certain conditions.
It remains to be seen whether, faced with definitions that are currently relatively broad, companies will play along without invoking commercial secrecy in order to retain the exclusivity of the accumulated data. “It is a balancing act, but we are trying to keep the definition as broad as possible”, conceded Internal Market Commissioner Thierry Breton.
The Commission’s proposal, which “is in line with the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and the Data Governance Act (DGA)” (see EUROPE 12847/12), explained Breton, also seeks to add a measure of fairness to the negotiation of contracts between small and large companies on data sharing.
Through dispute resolution clauses and processes, the Commission intends to “unlock the huge amount of data that will be created, and make it available to SMEs”. “Data should not be sucked up by big groups”, insisted the Commissioner for the Internal Market.
The text also defines the conditions under which public bodies can have access to data held by companies and contains provisions on the interoperability of services such as the cloud.
“We need to remove the technical and contractual barriers when a user changes service providers, which is often impossible for technical reasons”, Breton insisted.
Sectoral approach
The Commission’s proposal, which is designed to be horizontal, will be supplemented by sectoral initiatives aimed at clarifying the specificities of certain areas of activity.
“The Commission will publish in the coming weeks a call for contributions for access to vehicle data, but mobility will not be the only sector concerned; we will graft specific acts on other areas”, warned Thierry Breton.
Although no list has yet been officially drawn up, the fields of health, finance and energy should be specifically addressed.
In the European Parliament, some MEPs were quick to react to the announcement of theData Act.
“Together with the chip legislation, this proposal on data should enable European industry to seize the full potential of the profound digitalisation we are experiencing. Europe can lead the world market by developing a new generation of digitised products. To do this, our industry will need access to data”, Christian Ehler (EPP, Germany) told EUROPE.
On the Greens/EFA side, despite a slight “lack of ambition” on the part of the European Commission, Damian Boeselager (Greens/EFA, Germany) said it was a “good basis for becoming a game-changing regulation for the European economy”.
“However, I am concerned that users’ rights over the data are not stated clearly enough. The rights of access and use of the data by the holders should be limited to what is necessary to ensure the functionality and security of the connected object”, he added.
See the document: https://aeur.eu/f/h2 (Thomas Mangin)