BRUSSELS (Reuters) – SAP, Siemens and other German companies have joined the criticism of the “Data Act” of the European Union (EU).
They warned of a possible forced disclosure of trade secrets. The EU Commission tried to dispel these concerns
“There is a risk that European competitiveness will be undermined by mandating the exchange of data – including core know-how and design data,” the companies said in a joint letter to the European Commission published on Monday. “This could mean that EU companies would have to share data with third-country competitors, particularly those not operating in Europe, against whom the protections of data protection law would be ineffective.”
Commission spokesman Johannes Bahrke replied that the reference to a potential threat to business secrets should not be used as an excuse to refuse to pass on data. “We have to find a balance.” For this reason, appropriate protective measures are provided for in the “Data Act”.
GREATER CONTROL FOR USERS OVER THEIR DATA
Among other things, the planned EU law should give users the right to determine how the data generated by their devices is used. It also obliges large cloud providers such as Amazon Web Services, Microsoft and Google to prevent illegal access to data and to establish standards for easier provider switching.
The letter from the German companies to Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, Competition Commissioner Margarethe Vestager and Industry Commissioner Thierry Breton is dated May 4th. In addition to the heads of the software provider SAP and the technology group Siemens, the signatories also include those of the medical technology companies Siemens Healthineers and Brainlab and the electronics industry association Digitaleurope. While domestic companies focus their criticism on the threat to trade secrets, US corporations have castigated the law as too restrictive.
(Report by Foo Yun Chee; written by Hakan Ersen; edited by Hans Seidenstücker. If you have any questions, please contact our editorial team at [email protected] (for politics and economics) or [email protected] (for companies and markets).)
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