The European Commission is holding a Public Online Consultation on the Data Act. The Data Act aims to facilitate access to and use of data, including business-to business and business-to-government, and to review the rules on the legal protection of databases.
The Commission is committed to ensuring fairness in how the value from using data is shared among businesses, consumers and accountable public bodies.
You can reply to the survey, which closes on 3 September 2021, here: EUSurvey – Data Act Public Online Consultation.
In the framework of the Data Act, the EC is exploring options on cloud-related aspects such as cloud switching and access to data by third country jurisdictions. It seeks the right balance between rights to access data and incentives to invest in data, without changing the current data protection rules.
The Commission would like to hear your views
Through public consultations you can express your views on aspects of EU laws and policies before the Commission finalises its proposals.
Target audience
The European Commission aims at collecting the views of Member States’ competent public authorities, academic and research institutions, business associations, industrial clusters, companies/businesses, consumer organisations, NGOs, trade unions and citizens. All these stakeholder groups are expected to provide important feedback and insights on measures that would create a fair data economy by ensuring better control over and conditions for data sharing for citizens and businesses.
Why the EC is consulting
The gathered views of all interested parties will help shaping the Data Act. This legislative initiative aims to create a fair data economy by ensuring access to and use of data for legitimate purposes, including in business-to-business and business-to-government situations. The consultation will collect information on the following:
- Business-to-government data sharing for the public interest
- Business-to-business data sharing
- Tools for data sharing: Smart Contracts
- Clarifying rights on non-personal Internet of Things data stemming from professional use
- Improving portability for business users of cloud services
- Complementing the portability right under Article 20 GDPR
- Intellectual Property Rights – Protection of Databases
- Safeguards for non-personal data in international context
Personal data and privacy statement
The European Union is committed to protecting your personal data and to respecting your privacy. When carrying out public consultations it adheres to the policy on ‘protection of individuals with regard to the processing of personal data by the Community institutions’, based on Regulation (EU) 2018/1725 on processing of personal data by the EU institutions.