The EU Data Act 2025 is coming soon, slated to be effective from September 2025. Joining an already long list of data regulations, the Data Act promises to further develop the regulatory system in the EU – and put more requirements on companies seeking to be in compliance.
The EU Data Act promises fairer access to generated data, ensuring that stakeholders have the ability to use information relevant to their products and services. The examples they give include repair hubs accessing manufacturer data and other such use cases.
It includes, however, transformational requirements in order to facilitate this – including abilities to access and transfer data across platforms without financial or technical barriers. Up until this point, exporting or migrating data from proprietary systems has often been gated behind payments. This approach is being struck down by the European Commission, which envisages a world of freer and more equitable access.
This empowers firms to switch vendors or integrate new technologies without being held hostage by their existing providers, placing the burden on providers to ensure their systems are in alignment with the requirements.
Freer data access – but more oversight
Parallel to the EU Data Act come other steps, some of which will have far more restrictive impacts. Regulators, such as the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), are increasingly trying to close blind spots such as links and non-traditional message systems.
For instance, the SEC’s 2022 enforcement actions against major banks for failing to preserve WhatsApp messages underscore this trend, resulting in fines exceeding $2 billion. From the perspective of regulatory agencies, links to data are not sufficient – data has to be directly preserved, including data held in systems until now not directly touched on like WhatsApp, Slack or Teams.
What cumulative impacts this years’ crop of regulations and government actions will take remains to be seen; all that is certain is that they will continue to alter the current data storage and handling world beyond recognition.
Your Data In Your Hands – With TECH-ARROW
