11 January 2024 is the date of entry into force of the the Regulation (EU) 2023/2854 on harmonised rules on fair access to and use of data and amending Regulation (EU) 2017/2394 and Directive (EU) 2020/1828, also known as the Data Act.
The Data Act is intended to have a significant impact in the digital field, having also a relevance from the data protection perspective.
Thus, according to the Data Act, the users will benefit of a broader right to obtain access to data than currently granted by access and portability rights under GDPR.
Amongst other things, such right of access under the Data Act (i) will cover both personal data and non-personal data, (ii) will be granted to both natural and legal persons, and (iii) will give the possibility to obtain access to such data, where applicable, continuously and in free time.
The obligation to offer access refers to data holders, i.e., the entities that hold product data or related service data which they have retrieved or generated during the provision of the digital services regulated under such Data Act.
The regulation will become applicable from 12 September 2025.
The text of the regulation, as published in the Official Journal of the European Union, is available here.
