The European Union (EU) often sees itself as a political dwarf and an economic giant. However, the EU lags far behind the USA in terms of digitalization. Is the EU now also faltering as an economic giant? To prevent this from happening and to allow the race to catch up in digitalization to begin, the EU launched the European Data Strategy in 2020 the Data Governance Act (DGA).
The aim is to facilitate the flow of data between companies within the European single market. The goal is for easier access to and use of data to lead to more digital innovation and economic growth in the EU.
There will be various laws at European level for this purpose:
- The Data Act (DA) , which is intended to regulate the right of access to data for individuals, companies and public bodies ( we reported ),
- the Digital Markets Act (DMA) , which aims to prevent market abuse by corporations such as Alphabet (better known as Google), Amazon or Meta,
- the Digital Services Act (DSA) , which aims to strengthen competition between internet, cloud or hosting providers, and
- the Data Governance Act (DGA) , which aims to promote the availability of data and data sharing for the innovative development of digital services and products.
Having already dealt with the DA, we will now focus on the DGA (Regulation EU 2022/868), which entered into force on 23 June 2022 and has been valid in the EU since 24 September.
What is the goal of the DGA? the Data Governance Act (DGA)
The DGA is intended to promote the exchange of digital data. It is irrelevant whether the data is personal or non-personal. It simply needs to be in digital form – unlike in the scope of the GDPR.
To achieve this goal of promoting exchange, trust among individuals and businesses regarding access to, control over, sharing, use, belgium business fax list and reuse of data should be strengthen (Recital 5). The primary recipient of data for reuse is the public sector. However, companies that generate data should also make data available.
So-called data intermediation services play a key role. Such data intermediation services can, for example, be public bodies. The EU aims for these services to provide easier access to the data economy for SMEs and start-ups with limited financial, legal, or administrative resources (Recital 27).
An important feature of data sharing is its altruistic purpose . The aim of the Data Protection Act (DGA) is to use altruism to create sufficiently large data sets to enable data analysis and machine learning, even across borders within the EU (Recital 45). To this end, data subjects or data owners should provide their consent or permission for the altruistic use of their data. The DGA emphasizes that data sharing can serve, in particular, to improve transport, public health, and combat climate change.
Relationship to the GDPR
The GDPR takes precedence over the DGA. The DGA does not create a legal basis for the processing of personal data—that is essentially what Art. 1 (3) DGA states. This creates a contradiction in objectives: While Art. 1 (3) GDPR is intended neither to restrict nor prohibit the free movement of personal data within the Union (as we reported ), before we go any further the transparency of data processing based on a legal basis or . The consent of the data subject is at the heart of data protection. In practice, the GDPR primarily slows down data exchange rather than promotes it. Promoting the sharing of personal data can only succeed if the GDPR is observed.
The DGA envisages the following scenario:
- The data subject wishes to make his or her personal data available to a company via a data brokerage service
- According to Art. 12(e) DGA, the data brokerage service may assist in facilitating data transfer . For example, it may convert the data into other formats, pseudonymize it, or anonymize it.
The last two points are particularly relevant from a data protection perspective. Because the DGA does not provide. A legal basis for data processing, marketing list and the DGA must be interpreted in light of the GDPR when it comes to personal data. Pseudonymization or even anonymization are important building blocks for facilitating data processing by the receiving company.
GDPR and DGA – a stuttering brake for the European economy
The central focus is on data brokerage service providers. Only when these providers can operate smoothly will it be possible to facilitate data sharing, which can lead to economic growth and innovation.
