The European Data Act: A horizontal building block for the data economy?

The chapter analyses whether the Data Act can reach its objective of stimulating the European data economy. We focus on two aspects: the horizontal framework for compulsory data sharing and enforcement. We show that the Data Act is a welcome but complicated piece of legislation that brings various interests together, in particular the interest of the data holder in protecting its investments (as reflected, for instance, in the need to ensure the protection of trade secrets and the ability to request a reasonable compensation for data sharing), the interest of third parties in accessing data to develop own products and services, and individuals’ interests in protecting and controlling the use of their personal data. The choices that Member States make regarding the designation of the competent national authority may also affect how this balance is struck in practice.