ZVEI Recommendations for Amendments to the Data Act Proposal

On 23 February 2022, the European Commission published a proposal for a Regulation on harmonised rules on fair access to, and use of, data (“Data Act”).
The German electrical and digital industry interlinks with its products and solutions the analogue and digital worlds and is actively shaping this change. Fair access to and use of data is a prerequisite for the digital and green transition of the economy and creates value for society. Therefore, ZVEI believes in the goals set out in the Data Act proposal. However, in order for the Data Act to realise an optimized data allocation a number of uncertainties must be removed. 

Our recommended amendments must be read before the background that most legal uncertainties and regulatory obstacles we encounter are caused by the fact that the proposal is based on a very simplified and not practical understanding of the industrial environment. We therefore suggest:
 

• To foster an optimised data allocation in Europe, the Data Act should support data flows along the entire value chain from TIER 1 to TIER n, also including towards manufacturers that – in fact – do not hold or receive any data that is generated by the use of their products or components.
• Furthermore, Chapter II of the proposal covers both B2B and B2C regardless of different needs in their respective contexts. Thus, legal uncertainties for companies are predetermined. We strongly recommend to separate B2B and B2C data sharing obligation of the Data Act proposal. 

With this paper we further build on our previous statements and recommend to EU policy makers some concrete amendments to make the new regulation fit for purpose and make it viable for businesses to thrive in the next phase of the data economy.