ABSTRACT
Internet of Things (IoT) devices are a new, fast-spreading innovation with many benefits but also new problems for which the current legal system does not yet have suitable solutions. The EU Data Act (DA) introduces new rights for users of IoT devices to access and use IoT data and share them with third parties to give users more control over their data (user empowerment) and to make more IoT data available for innovation and create more competition on secondary IoT-related markets for services. The paper analyzes in two steps the change of the bundle of rights on IoT data (1) in the initial DA proposal of the European Commission, and (2) in the final version of the DA. This analysis uses three different concepts for the bundle of rights on IoT data: a data holder-centric concept, a user-centric concept, and the concept of co-generated data. It also discusses the implications of these changes for the effectiveness of the DA to achieve its objectives. Overall, the DA cannot be expected to achieve its objectives. A big problem is that the basic contradictions, open questions, and unclear provisions can lead to great deal of legal uncertainty due to very different interpretations of the rules of the DA and the specific design of the bundle of rights on IoT data. This also includes the relationship to other laws, such as data protection and trade secret law, which also determine important parts of the bundle of rights on IoT data. Therefore, further improvements of the DA and additional policies will be necessary.
Eckardt, Martina and Kerber, Wolfgang, Designing the Bundle of Rights on IoT Data: The EU Data Act (June 5, 2024), Andrássy Working Paper Series in Economics and Business Administration, No 24.
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