Data Governance Act

The Regulation on European Data Governance, i.e., the EU Data Governance Act (“DGA”) creates a framework for governance of data within the EU by promoting availability of data and creating unified rules for sharing personal and non-personal data.

What does this mean?

The DGA:

• Sets out the conditions and creates framework for the re-use of certain categories of data held by public sector bodies for commercial and non-commercial purposes. These categories of data include data protected on the grounds of commercial or statistical confidentiality or due to intellectual property rights of third parties or the protection of personal data. Access to and re-use of the data may be subject to, for example, contractual and technical safeguards or receiving permission of those whose rights may be affected. However, the DGA does not create obligation to the public sector to provide the access.
• Sets out rules for data intermediation service providers that offer data exchange services, including conditions for provision of such services and supervisory of the same.
• Provides arrangements to facilitate data altruism, i.e., individuals or companies voluntary sharing their data for objectives of general interest, such as healthcare or combating climate change.
• A framework for the establishment of a European Data Innovation Board to provide guidance and facilitate cooperation among the various actors.
• Certain rules for the transfer of non-personal data to third countries.

The DGA applies to both personal and non-personal data, however, in case of personal data, the principles of the GDPR take precedence.

Who?

• Public sector bodies that may be subject to new types of data access requests.
• Both individuals and legal entities may be data users who may get access to and re-use the publicly held data.
• In addition, the DGA governs data intermediation service providers and individuals and companies committed to data altruism.

Timeline

The DGA entered into force on 23 June 2022 and is effective as of 24 September 2023. The DGA is EU regulation directly applicable in all Member States, however, it requires some national implementation. The draft government bill on the national implementation of the DGA in Finland was published in April 2023.