Data Law Comes Into Force In The Eu

The EU's Data Act entered into force on January 11th. It aims to make it easier for individuals and businesses to access data on the EU market. 

In recent years, the Internet of Things has led to a rapid increase in the amount of data. These new rules will, therefore, encourage the use of data and ensure that it is shared, stored, and processed in full compliance with European regulations. 

Whether you are a citizen or a business , these new rules will improve our lives in several ways. To give a few examples;

• Prices for after-sales services and repair of smart devices will be lower. For example, if your smartwatch breaks, you can now request access to the data from any repair service, which may be cheaper than the watch manufacturer. Because in the past, only the manufacturer had access to your data. But now, thanks to the new data rules, you can find cheaper service alternatives.
• There will be new opportunities to use services based on access to data. If you have machines from different manufacturers, you can now get customized advice from a company that collects data from different machines. Until now, each machine's data was locked by its manufacturer. But now, this will change thanks to data access.
• Better access to data collected or generated by a device. For example, you are a café owner who wants to serve better coffee. Of course, the coffee machine company also wants to improve its product. In the past, only the company could access the data generated by the machine to design the next generation of coffee machines. Still, the café owner could not access information such as the temperature of the water. The data law ensures that both parties can access all the data the machine collects.

The data law also allows the public sector to access and use data held by the private sector to help respond to public emergencies such as floods and forest fires. It will also protect European businesses from unfair contractual terms in data-sharing agreements so that small businesses can participate more actively in the data market. 

The Data Act will be implemented in the EU approximately 20 months later, on September 11, 2025.