Meeting with
Go
le and Alphabet
Ref. Ares(2022)2869279 - 09/04/2022
Ref. Ares(2022)5039270 - 11/07/2022
Brussels, 30 March 2022
Data Act
Main messages
The aim of the EU data strategy is to unleash the potential of use and re-use of data
and to build open, competitive and human-centric ecosystems around data in Europe.
Voluntary data-sharing partnerships are supported by investments in common European
data spaces and legislative rules on data intermediaries via the Data Governance Act.
Such data intermediaries would have to, as their main function, bring supply and demand
for data together, but would be limited to the role of a facilitator of the exchange (no
own use of the data by the intermediary). They could be used by individuals to better
digitise their online lives and by businesses to manage their data assets better.
The Data Act aims to make the markets for data-driven services for cloud services
more dynamic by giving users of the growing class of connected (IoT) objects a right to
access and use the data that such objects create. This would lead to a fairer
distribution of the value that economic operators can take from data, both users of such
objects and third party service providers. Any sharing of personal data must comply
with the General Data Protection Regulation.
Giving users of cloud services a right to switch such services is a measure that we
hope makes that market more competitive.
Defensive
Why does the Data Act explicitly exclude Digital Markets Act (DMA) gatekeepers
from the beneficiary third parties that can receive data from connected objects via
the user (consumer, professional)?
The Data Act brings legal clarity that users (consumers and professionals) can use
data from their connected objects and make such data available to third parties. This
intervention is meant to redress a current imbalance in the market that often makes it
hard for innovative companies to arrange contractually for such data access.
For companies of the size and market power of a DMA gatekeeper, we do not see such
a need. It remains possible under the Data Act to obtain data access contractually in
partnerships with manufacturers of connected objects.
Background
Data strategy and Data Act
The Commission adopted a data strategy in February 2020. The Data Governance Act,
the first legislative deliverable under this strategy, has been agreed upon by Parliament
and Council (political agreement end of November 2021; expected to be signed – after
linguistic revision and translation – in May or June 2022). The second deliverable under
the strategy, the proposal for a Data Act, was adopted on 23 February 2022 and is now
discussed by the co-legislators.
The Data Act introduces minimum regulatory requirements of contractual and commercial
nature to enable cloud switching and improved open interoperability standards. The Data
Act defines a minimum timeframe for switching. It also abolishes fees that may be
charged for the switching process. To stimulate interoperability between cloud services,
the Data Act builds on a standardisation approach, making open standards and ‘open
interoperability specifications’ for cloud switching mandatory where these exist.
The Data Act also introduces new criteria on cloud services to shield EU non-personal
data from unlawful access by non-EU/EEA public authorities.
Topics for discussion
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Meeting with
Google and Alphabet
Brussels, 30 March 2022
The establishment of common European data spaces is supported through the Digital
Europe programme. Currently, we are awarding funding for preparatory projects to
develop the data governance principles and architectures for the different data spaces.
In the Council, discussions have already started under the Council Working Party on
Telecommunications. The French Presidency aims for one full reading of the proposal and
possibly starting with drafting work.
In the Parliament, the assignment to a relevant committee has started. ITRE committee is
most likely to be in the lead (the provisional assignment can be contested at this moment).
According to the information available, S&D might be able to nominate the rapporteur, two
contestants are known to date (
).
EU cloud security certification scheme
ENISA is currently preparing a candidate scheme, which it plans to bring to all Member
States for an opinion in April 2022. After ENISA has reached a mature draft candidate
scheme, the Commission will draft an implementing act to establish the scheme.
Contacts – briefing contribution:
Topics for discussion
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