The new European data regulation introduces new rules for the use of information from smart devices. These rules define rights to access and use data created in the EU across all economic sectors and across smart devices from different manufacturers.
What will the new regulation mean for consumers and businesses?
The possibility of accessing data and using it comes up against various legal or economic restrictions, most importantly data holders' reluctance to share their data with someone else. Consequently, the stronger position of those holding more data in the market is often abused.
In practice, the regulation aims to prevent this with measures that should have the following effect:
- Prices for after-sales services and repairs of smart devices will be lower. For example, if your smartwatch breaks, you can now request that any service outside of the manufacturer gain access to the data.
- There will be new opportunities to use services that rely on access to data. If you have devices from different manufacturers, you can now get advice from one company collecting data from different devices. Until now, each device's data was locked by its manufacturer. The ordinary user will therefore also get a better overview of their data.
- Better access for smaller businesses to data collected by devices.
The goal of the regulation is therefore to remove obstacles to the functioning of the internal data market, to ensure a fair distribution of value from data between individual entities on the market, and to support the so-called secondary data market for their further resale and use. With exceptions, the data regulation will be effective from September 2025.
By Marek Poloni, Associate, Eversheds Sutherland
