Data Act: Bitkom President Wintergerst on the conclusion of the trilogue negotiations

Berlin, 28 June 2023 - The European Commission, the European Parliament and the Council of the European Union have reached an agreement in the trilogue negotiations on the Data Act. Among other things, the Data Act aims to promote the exchange of data between companies and between companies and the public sector. Bitkom President Dr Ralf Wintergerst states:

"Bitkom welcomes the improvements made to the original Commission draft of the Data Act during the trilogue negotiations. The Data Act must now be brought over the finishing line and then it is a matter of maximising opportunities in implementation! Europe needs a functioning data economy that is competitive on a global scale. With the Data Act, we can succeed in advancing the exchange of data between companies and with the public sector, across all industries and sectors. We should set the course for a data economy that is designed for mutual benefit. This could make Germany and Europe real role models in the world.

We need to keep a close eye on whether the fear that trade and business secrets are not being adequately protected proves to be true. In particular, Europe must avoid that the obligation to share data leads to trade secrets falling into the hands of competitors or countries that are less friendly to us. If such a case occurs, countermeasures must be taken immediately and the Data Act must be amended.

We welcome that data sharing between companies and the public sector focuses on data without personal reference; personal data, on the other hand, only has to be shared in the case of a public emergency. Unfortunately, it remains open throughout the Data Act what exactly constitutes appropriate compensation in data sharing. There is legal ambiguity here. Legal certainty is a prerequisite for a functioning data economy, which makes a well thought-out and consistent implementation of the Data Act all the more important.

With regard to so-called cloud switching, i.e. switching between cloud services of different providers, as well as data processing services in general, significant improvements have been achieved in the trilogue negotiations. Bitkom supports the goal of making it easier to switch providers in the cloud sector. We welcome the fact that cloud providers are essentially not being asked to do anything technically impossible and that more consideration is being given to the architecture of the services. At the same time, we would have liked to see even more flexibility in the deadlines. Cloud switching is extremely complex in practice with different services as well as the different standards that now have to be developed."