The New EU Data Act Proposal Raises Several Questions

Nick Phillips and Selina Clifford from our IT team examine the proposed new EU Data Act and look at the chances of the UK introducing similar rules, in a recent article for Law 360.

In February, the European Commission published its proposal for a new Data Act that seeks to improve a user’s right to access and exploit data generated from their use of digital products and related services.

The Data Act is the second main legislative initiative, after the Data Governance Act, resulting from the EU’s strategy for data published in February 2020, which aims to make the EU a leader in a data-driven society.

In keeping with this strategy, one of the main objectives of the Data Act is to promote a competitive data market and drive innovation by unlocking the economic and societal potential of data and technologies.

The commission has estimated that a staggering 80% of industrial data is never used, yet this data can be used for “non-rival good,” meaning it can be used at the same time by many individuals without affecting the quality of the data or depleting its supply.

By improving users’ right to access this data and operationalizing rules to ensure fairness in the digital environment, it is envisaged that new opportunities for data-driven innovation will open up, which the commission estimates could create an additional €270 billion ($2.67 billion) of GDP by 2028.

Read the full article on the Law 360 website (subscription may be required)