2.3. The Data Governance Act & Data Act Proposal

2.3.1. Data Governance Act

In November 2020, the EC adopted the Proposal for a Data Governance Act (DGA). The DGA proposal consists of the following 3 main pillars. First, the DGA proposal sets the conditions for enhancing the development of the common European data spaces by bringing trust in a range of data sharing services. Second, it introduces a voluntary registration regime applying to ‘data altruism’ services. Third, the DGA proposal creates a legal regime for the re-use of public sector data which are subject to the rights of third parties.
On November 30, 2021, the EU Parliament and Council reached a provisional agreement on the proposed Data Governance Act.

2.3.2. Data Act Proposal

The Data Act is intertwined with the Data Governance Act, within the scheme of the European Data Strategy. The proposal for the Data Act was published in February 2022. The Data Act seeks to ensure fairness in the digital environment, stimulate a competitive data market, open opportunities for data-driven innovation and make data more accessible for all.
Briefly, the Data Act proposes the following:
– Measures to allow users of connected devices to gain access to data generated by them, which is often exclusively harvested by manufacturers; and to share such data with third parties to provide aftermarket or other data-driven innovative services.
– Measures to rebalance negotiation power for SMEs by preventing abuse of contractual imbalances in data sharing contracts, by shielding them from unfair contractual terms imposed by a party with a significantly stronger bargaining position.
– Means for public sector bodies to access and use data held by the private sector that is necessary for exceptional circumstances, particularly in case of a public emergency, such as floods and wildfires, or to implement a legal mandate if data are not otherwise available.
– New rules allowing customers to effectively switch between different cloud data-processing services providers and putting in place safeguards against unlawful data transfer.

Authors:
Lidia Dutkiewicz, Emine Ozge Yildirim, Noémie Krack from KU Leuven
Lucile Sassatelli from Université Côte d’Azur