Tuesday, January 17, 2023
The EU Data Act and the Access to Secondary Markets
The EU Data Act and the Access to Secondary Markets
Abstract
With the draft Data Act, the European Commission placed data access high on the agenda for regulating the network economy. Those corporations who have de facto control over data collected with smart devices can exclude others from markets and may decide on the success of third parties in competition according to their own profit interests. This takes away consumers' decision-making power in the market economy and leads to less competition and innovation.
In this policy paper, which was commissioned by the Ludwig-Fröhler-Institute, Munich, potential improvements of the Data Act are identified with the specific aim of preventing a foreclosure of access to secondary markets for independent companies.
We acknowledge that the Commission has chosen the right approach in the Data Act. Still, we have 28 recommendations to improve the draft Data Act so as to open up secondary markets for third parties. In particular, our proposals argue from the perspective of micro enterprises, small and medium-sized enterprises (SME) that wish to perform repair and maintenance services on downstream markets. These companies should be granted a purpose-oriented right to access that covers data, but also auxiliary tools and related data. We also draw some comparison with rules in the DMA, the Digital Markets Act.
https://lawprofessors.typepad.com/antitrustprof_blog/2023/01/the-eu-data-act-and-the-access-to-secondary-markets.html
