Page 43 - CBM25

~ Wijnand Jongen ~

sector, data plays a key role in companies’ business models,
and data exchanges should be encouraged where it makes
sense and where it can bring about positive developments.
But for a sector that, to such a large extent, relies on data, it
is imperative to ensure proper safeguards for trade secrets if
wanting to effectively incentivise businesses to join in on the
journey of the data economy.

Uncertainty on international data flows jeopardises
EU businesses’ global competitiveness
However, there is a limit to everything, and particularly
the Data Act’s mention of international data flows raises
concerns. The proposal introduces technical, legal, and
organisational measures to prevent international data
transfers or government access to non-personal data held
in the EU where such transfer or access would conflict
with Union or Member State law. This could have serious BECOME OUR
negative consequences for businesses’ ability to transfer data
internationally.

COMPANY
First of all, the European Commission says that data requests PLUS
from a third country to a data processing service should be
based on international agreements. However, the Commission
fails to address which agreements they point to. Secondly, this MEMBER
element of the proposal would also risk restricting users’ free
choice of cloud services in Europe, thus increasing red tape
and costs, not only for service providers but also for users.

The issue of the Commission’s vagueness on this topic is
further fuelled by the ongoing debate on the EU-US Data
Privacy Framework and the related issue that multiple EU Participate in public affairs
Member States have declared companies’ use of certain non- activities
EU-providers, e.g., in the field of analytics or cloud services,
unlawful, due to the potential access by US authorities to Get weekly and monthly monitoring
data generated through the service. The new Data Privacy reports on relevant policy issues
Framework is the US and EU’s joint effort to lay down
concrete rules for a continuous flow of transfers of personal Get the annual European B2C
data across the pond. However, although the ball is currently Ecommerce Report for free
in the EU’s court, the process ahead is still a lengthy one.
With the many actors involved, it might take time to come
to an agreement on whether the data protection in the Access exclusive events
US is “essentially equivalent” to that of the EU. The future
of international data transfers for European businesses, Publish your profile and guest article
therefore, remains to be seen, but Ecommerce Europe is
pushing EU policymakers for more legal clarity. on Ecommerce Europe's website

If I could look into the crystal ball, I would hope to see a
durable solution for international data transfers, both for
For more information visit our
personal and non-personal data, as soon as possible. This is
website or email us:
key to fully unlocking the potential of the data economy in
www.ecommerce-europe.eu
the EU. ••
[email protected]

43