Growth potential of the data economy
Meanwhile, the revolution driven by the Internet of Things has ignited exponential growth that is expected to lead to huge rates of increase in data volumes in the coming years. However, a significant amount of industry data remains untapped and full of unrealized opportunities. The Data Act aims to boost the EU’s data economy by unlocking industrial data, optimizing its accessibility and use, and promoting a competitive and reliable European cloud market. This is intended to bring the benefits of the digital revolution to everyone.
In concrete terms, the Data Act includes:
- regulations that allow users of connected devices to access the data generated by those devices and their associated services. Users can share this data with third parties, providing the impetus for a variety of connected services and innovations.
- At the same time, incentives remain for manufacturers to invest in high-quality data generation while protecting their trade secrets.
Rules to protect against unilaterally imposed unfair contract terms. These are designed to protect EU businesses from unfair agreements, promote fair negotiations, and enable SMEs to be more confident in the digital marketplace.
- Mechanisms for public sector bodies to access and use private sector data when necessary during public emergencies (such as floods and forest fires) or to fulfill a legal mandate and the required data is not readily available by other means.
- New rules giving customers the freedom to switch between different cloud data processing service providers. These regulations aim to promote competition and choice in the market while avoiding undesirable vendor lock-in. In addition, the Data Law includes safeguards to prevent unlawful data transfers and provide for greater reliability and security in the data processing environment.
- Measures to promote the development of interoperability standards for data exchange and processing in line with the EU standardization strategy.
Next steps
The political agreement reached by the European Parliament and the Council must now be formally endorsed by the two legislative bodies. Once adopted, the Data Law will enter into force on the twentieth day following its publication in the Official Journal of the European Union and will then become applicable 20 months after its entry into force.
Background
The Data Law complements the November 2020 Data Governance RegulationEN— by clarifying who may create value from data and under what conditions. It stems from the European Data StrategyEN— announced in February 2020, which aims to position the EU as a leader in the age of our data-driven society.
These initiatives will together create a single market that will allow data to move freely within the European Union and across sectors. This will benefit consumers, businesses, research, public administrations and society at large. This will also foster collaboration and innovation. At the same time, thanks to data-driven solutions, the position of the European economy and European citizens will also be strengthened.
Further links
https://commission.europa.eu/index_de
Data Act
