Czech Business Today

On 23 February 2022, the European Commission presented a proposal of a Data Act, which aims to establish rules to allow users to access and share data generated by connected devices with third parties, as well as measures to counterbalance the bargaining power of small and medium-sized enterprises to prevent abuses of the contractual balance in data sharing contracts, and means to access private sector data for use by the public sector in emergency cases.

In addition, the Act deals with rules to allow clients to switch cloud service providers. For example, according to a Commission survey, 80% of industrial data is unused, and this data holds huge potential for use in new services or products. In general, European business welcome the idea behind the proposal. For example, Eurochambres welcomes this initiative and sees it as an important step towards facilitating the creation of a thriving data economy in Europe. European legislation should provide legal certainty and conditions for voluntary data sharing and exchange.

The Data Act will enable start-ups and companies from all economic sectors to fully participate in the digital economy of tomorrow. BusinessEurope supports the swift adoption of this initiative as, for example, some European companies doing business across the Atlantic face obstacles such as legal uncertainty and increased costs of doing business because there is no legal framework for data transfer between the EU and the US.

The emerging data law should not become a barrier to investment and economic growth for European companies by forcing data sharing where it is not needed. The COVID-19 pandemic is a good example of effective cooperation between European businesses and public authorities in dealing with emergencies. It is also very important not to violate the confidentiality of trade secrets and to comply with the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and intellectual property rights. Data sharing should be supported by a cloud infrastructure based on the principles of security, interoperability, portability and openness.

This will build market participants’ trust in data sharing, storage and processing. In this respect, the Czech Republic sees the Data Act as a key element in the emerging new modern economy, whose fundamental pillars must be security, transparency, clarity, safety, interoperability and affordability.