The European Commission has published the highly awaited Data Act, a new legislative proposal that aims at facilitating the access to and use of data across the EU Data Economy. As part of this initiative, the Commission also reviewed the rules on the legal protection of databases, i.e. the Database Directive.

Copenhagen Economics, in collaboration with Technopolis, CSIL and Tilburg University, has prepared an impact assessment study to support the Commission in this review. The study focused on the application of the Directive to databases containing sensors and machine-generated data (MGD) collected in the IoT environment.

Data collected by sensors and machines are becoming increasingly relevant with countless applications across sectors. However, there is still uncertainty on their legal protection. Should database-makers be granted exclusive rights on their databases containing machine-generated data? What would be the effects on the incentives from firms and organisations to collect data and the ability for users to access them?

Our study presents and assesses the impact of several policy options to reduce the current legal uncertainty around the scope of the Database Directive and ensure the instrument is fit for the new data economy.

Learn more about the review of the Database Directive here.

For further information, please contact our Senior Economist Federico De Michiel.