Data Access Rights and the EU Data Act

Over the course of several years, the Institute accompanied the Commission’s work on the future legal framework for machine-generated IoT data. After having successfully opposed the Commission’s idea of introducing a data producer’s right for the users of connected devices, the Institute concentrated its research on data access rights, including a right entitling the user of such devices to access and use of IoT data. The fact that the Commission included legislation for such a right as the major element of its Data Act Proposal of February 2022 and the final adoption of the Data Act in December 2023 could therefore be considered the fruit of the Institute’s endeavors. Yet the new “IoT data access and use right” is part of a much more comprehensive piece of legislation that the Institute decided to comment upon in one of the longest position statements it has ever published. The reason for its length is not only the great variety and complexity of the issues addressed, but also the Institute’s objective to provide as much informed guidance as possible to the legislature to bring about improvements of the text. In sum, the general evaluation of the Data Act remains rather mixed. In particular, the Institute is concerned that the Data Act will not bring about the benefits that it promises. Moreover, the Data Act does not sufficiently target what is by now the most important challenge in the data access debate, namely access to data needed for the development of artificial intelligence (AI). Thus, it has been clear since the day of its adoption that the Data Act will only mark an episode in a longer legal development, rather than the endpoint of EU legislation on data access rights.