The Data Act: A Missed Opportunity for Consumers

• Onntje Hinrichs

In 2014 the Juncker Commission identified the creation of a Digital Single Market as one of the critical policy areas. Since then, the EU has been extremely active in proposing regulation for a digital economy that ensures a high level of consumer and data protection and that, at the same time, boosts competitiveness and innovation capacities. The various proposals forwarded by the Commission reflect its intent to find an appropriate governance for data which, if successful, should function as a trust-building framework capable of reconciling conflicting interests in data and finding a proper balance between value creation and risk control.