European data law: towards fair use of data
July 13, 2023
DESCRIPCIÓN
In our previous blog article, which you can read here, we talked about the new European regulation on AI, a regulation that seeks to guarantee better conditions for its development and use in data management, given that it can be a great ally in the management of information in the digital era. The proposed AI law is just one of the legislative initiatives that the EU is carrying out as part of its "European Data Strategy", whose ultimate goal is to create a single data market that guarantees global competitiveness and data sovereignty in Europe.
On this occasion and due to its recent political agreement by the European Parliament and Council, BAIDATA would like to talk about the proposal for a Regulation on fair access and use of data, hereinafter referred to as the Data Act, another European legislative initiative within the framework of the European Data Strategy. In this regard and following the Data Governance Act presented in November 2020 and approved in November 2021, which creates the processes and structures to facilitate the exchange of data, the Data Act, which we come to talk about in this article, clarifies who can create value from data (individuals, companies and public bodies) and under what conditions, thus complementing this first regulation.
Before going fully into the implications of this European Law on the data economy, it is worth defining what the purpose of this Law is and why we need it. In this sense, this regulation stems from the need for the European economy to harness the full value of data, as it is currently unclear who can use it, resulting in an under-utilisation of data by Member States, with negative consequences in terms of consumer choice, innovation and the provision of public services.
So how will this Data Act make more data available to businesses, citizens and public administrations? This will be done through 4 main measures: the first will establish rules aimed at increasing legal certainty for businesses and consumers on who can use what data and under what conditions; the second measure is aimed at balancing the bargaining power of SMEs by preventing the abuse of contractual imbalances; thirdly, it establishes measures for public sector bodies to access and use data held by the private sector that are necessary in exceptional circumstances for specific public interest purposes, as was the case in the Covid-19 pandemic (access to geolocation mobile data to understand the relationship between mobility and the spread of the virus); finally, the fourth measure established by the Data Act is to establish new rules to allow customers to effectively switch cloud data processing service providers.
To give a concrete example, companies in the industrial sector could benefit from the availability of data on the operation of industrial equipment, which will allow workshop optimisation; in the agricultural sector, on the other hand, it will help farmers to analyse real-time data such as weather, temperature, humidity, prices or GPS signals and provide information on how to optimise and increase yields; on the SME side, they will have more possibilities to compete and innovate on the basis of the data they generate thanks to data access and portability rights.
As regards the relationship of the Data Act with data spaces, the provisions of this European regulation will contribute to making more data available, also for and within sectoral data spaces. For example, on the basis of the Data Act, the common European energy data space will improve the interoperability of energy assets and services, as well as the flexibility and the overall security and reliability of the energy system.
In conclusion, this new data law is a key measure to make more data available for use by individuals, businesses and public bodies, so that it will become a powerful driver for innovation, thus facilitating a fairer allocation of value by addressing current situations where a few actors use data exclusively. In addition, the Data Act will protect small and medium-sized enterprises against certain data sharing clauses or the use of contracts that make data sharing partnerships unattractive.
The Data Act is now subject to formal approval and, once adopted, will enter into force on the twentieth day following its publication in the Official Journal and will become applicable twenty months after its entry into force.
If you would like to know more about how data sharing can improve your company's competitiveness and about all the regulations and support that the EU is putting in place, please fill in the following form and we will be happy to inform you about our partnership.