Data Act and Competition : An Ambivalent Relationship

The Data Act proposes new data access and sharing rights for users of IoT devices to unlock data that are under the exclusive control of manufacturers for more innovation and competition, especially on secondary markets. The analysis in this paper, however, shows that due to too many restrictions and barriers in the data sharing mechanism this objective will not be achieved. The Data Act also might have more negative than positive effects on competition and innovation on the markets for IoT devices (also due to unjustified non-com-pete provisions). Other restrictions about the sharing of IoT data by users and third parties with gatekeeper firms have complex effects, and would need to be part of a broader policy strategy for taming the data power of the large tech firms