Building the European Data Economy

Whereas the General Data Protection regulation (GDPR) fully regulates the processing of personal data in the EU, including machine generated or industrial data that identifies or makes identifiable a natural person it does not cover non-personal data when they are industrial or machine generated, or obstacles to the movement of personal data based on other reasons than the protection of personal data, e.g. under taxation or accounting laws. The latter ones are addressed in the Building the European Data Economy package. However, there is still some room for a potential cross-over. 

On 10 January 2017, the Commission adopted the "Building the European Data Economy" package consisting of a Communication and a Staff Working Document. These policy documents give an overview of issues at stake.

The Communication from the European Commission looks at proven or potential blockages to the free movement of data and presents options to remove unjustified and or disproportionate data location restrictions in the EU. It also considers the barriers around access to and transfer of non-personal machine-generated data, data liability, as well as issues related to the portability of non-personal data, interoperability and standards.

Building a European data economy is part of the Digital Single Market strategy. The initiative aims at fostering the best possible use of the potential of digital data to benefit the economy and society. The "Building the European Data Economy" package addresses restrictions on the free flow of data, including legal barriers on the location of data for storage and/or processing purposes, and a series of emerging issues relating to data such as ownership, access, reuse, portability and liability.

In this context, the European Commission also published a public consultation on 10 January 2017 which is supposed to help shape the future policy agenda on the European data economy. It will feed into a possible Commission's initiative in 2017 on Building the European Data Economy.

The objective of the consultation is to collect information on:

• whether and how local or national data localisation restrictions inhibit the free flow of data in Europe
• whether and to what extent digital non-personal machine-generated data are traded and exchanged
• the nature and magnitude of any barriers to accessing such data
• ways of tackling those barriers
• emerging Internet of Things and robotics liability challenges
• practices and issues relating to data portability, interoperability and standards

Targeted respondents

This consultation targets:

• Businesses of all sizes
• Manufacturers and users of connected devices
• Operators and users of online platforms
• Data brokers
• Businesses commercialising data-based products and services
• Public authorities
• Non-governmental organisations
• Researcher and research organisations
• Consumers

The Consultation period will take place between 10 January – 26 April 2017. 

For more information visit here.