On early Friday evening, 24 March, EU Member States came to an agreement on their position for the forthcoming interinstitutional negotiations (‘trilogues’) relating to the ‘Data Act’.
As reported in our bulletin of 15 March, the vast majority of Member States supported the sixth version of the compromise text presented by the Swedish Presidency of the Council of the EU (see EUROPE 13142/18), which is intended to provide citizens and businesses with more power over the data they generate.
“Today’s agreement will contribute to the creation of a single market that allows data to flow freely within the EU and between sectors, which will benefit businesses, researchers, public administrations and society as a whole”, commented the Swedish Minister for Public Administration Erik Slottner.
There are several changes in the position that was defined by the EU Council. The scope has therefore been clarified – in particular for data related to the Internet of Things – and the focus has shifted from the products themselves to the functionalities of the data collected by the connected products. This was one of the priorities of a number of Member States who had expressed this to the Swedish Presidency of the EU Council on 3 February (see EUROPE 13116/7).
In addition, clarifications have also been made in order to facilitate the articulation of the future text with already existing legislation – horizontal and sectoral – in particular the legislation regarding data governance (see EUROPE 12953/32) and the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).
Provisions have also been added to the European Commission’s original proposal in terms of business secrecy and intellectual property rights. By way of reminder, these aspects had been among the points that had been most discussed when searching for a common position among Member States (see EUROPE 13108/7).
Although the principles have remained unchanged in substance, a number of clarifications have been made to ensure that it is easy to switch from one data processing service to another, as well as regarding the terms – in case of exceptional needs – under which data sharing can be requested by public sector bodies.
In addition, the text retains the fact that public sector bodies can access data that is held by the private sector in the event of a public emergency, such as floods or forest fires. These public bodies could use the data or execute a legal warrant if the data is not otherwise available.
Measures are also planned against the misuse of contractual imbalances in data sharing contracts as a result of contractual clauses imposed by a dominant market player, who would be in a stronger bargaining position.
See the document: https://aeur.eu/f/62q (Original version in French by Thomas Mangin)