Call for views in response to the European Commission’s public consultation on the Data Act

On 23 February 2022 the European Commission published proposal COM/2022/68 final for a Regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council on harmonised rules on fair access to and use of data (Data Act). This followed a public consultation held by the EU Commission from 3 June to 3 September 2021.

The proposal for a Data Act is open for stakeholder feedback to the EU Commission from 14 March to 11 May 2022.

The ‘Data Act’, aims to facilitate access to and use of data, including business-to business and business-to-government, and to review the rules on the legal protection of databases.

It seeks the right balance between rights to access data and incentives to invest in data, without changing the current data protection rules. It aims to do this by:

  • facilitating the access to and use of data by businesses and consumers while preserving incentives to invest in ways of generating value through data
  • providing for the use by public sector bodies etc of data held by enterprises where there is an exceptional need
  • facilitating switching between cloud and edge services
  • providing for safeguards against unlawful (third country) data transfer without notification by cloud provider
  • provide for the development of interoperability standards for data to be reused between sectors

Submissions

The Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment is seeking views from stakeholders on the Data Act proposal. Submissions should be marked “Public Consultation on the Data Act” and emailed to dsmunit@enterprise.gov.ie  

Deadline

Deadline for submissions: Close of business on Friday, 13 May 2022

Related information

Data Act: Proposal for a Regulation on harmonised rules on fair access to and use of data | Shaping Europe’s digital future (europa.eu)

Data Governance Act: Proposal for a Regulation on European data governance (europa.eu)

The European Commission has launched a stakeholder consultation available at Data Act and amended rules on the legal protection of databases (europa.eu). The Commission’s consultation will be open until 11 May 2022.

Publication of submissions and relevant provision of the Freedom of Information Act 2014

The Department may publish all submissions received under this consultation on its website. However, should you submit information that you consider commercially sensitive, please identify that information in your submission and give reasons for considering it commercially sensitive. The Department will consult with you regarding such information before making any decision to publish.

Attention is drawn to the fact that information provided to the Department may be disclosed in response to a request under the Freedom of Information Act 2014. Therefore, should it be considered that any information provided by a respondent is commercially sensitive, please identify same, and specify the reason for its sensitivity. The Department will consult with interested parties regarding information identified by them as sensitive before making a decision on any Freedom of Information request.

Update June 2022: Submissions to the consultation are available to download below.

Documents


            Image depicting item named CCPC submission
CCPC submission »
File type image for CCPC submission  pdf (439 KB)

            Image depicting item named ComReg submission
ComReg submission »
File type image for ComReg submission  pdf (200 KB)

            Image depicting item named Ibec submission
Ibec submission »
File type image for Ibec submission  pdf (490 KB)

Topics: Digital Single Market