Data Legislation and P2B Regulation

A key goal of the Omnibus Package is to consolidate and streamline data legislation including the Data Act, the Free Flow of Non-Personal Data Regulation, the Data Governance Act, the Open Data Directive into one single consolidated instrument to deal with Europe’s data economy. The Omnibus Package will repeal outdated or superfluous rules.

The Omnibus Package proposes changes to the Data Act, including: (a) a change to the temporal scope of the switching rules for SMEs and SMCs, and for certain cloud computing services that are specifically tailored for customers; and (b) changes that seek to increase the protection for trade secrets in the context of connected products and related services. The proposed changes to the Data Act leave the core obligations of the regulation unchanged.

This is a helpful development, given that the proliferation of data legislation led to confusion and significant cost implications in identifying the application of legislation and the relevant obligations. However, it is not immediately clear that the proposals would materially ease the burden on businesses in practice.

Repeal of the platform to business directive

Given the prominence of the Digital Markets Act and the Digital Services Act in relation to the regulation of online intermediation services and online platforms, it is proposed that the Platform-to-Business Directive is no longer necessary and should be repealed (with some savers).