The Data Governance Act: – Promoting or Restricting Data Intermediaries?

Following its approval by the European Parliament in April 2022, the Data Governance Act (DGA) is the first legislative instrument announced in the European Data Strategy to come into force. Aimed at facilitating the re-use and sharing of data in and between the private and public sectors, the DGA introduces regulation for a newly emerging type of digital platforms – the so-called “providers of data intermediation services”. In order to offer their services on the market, providers will have to submit to a prior notification procedure and show compliance with several conditions placed on their economic activities. The regulation of data intermediaries is intended to increase their trustworthiness and ensure the competitiveness of the markets in which they operate. Recent experiences with digital platforms have shown the potential of intermediaries to organise and facilitate markets. At the same time, digital platforms pose undeniable risks to their users and markets at large. Against this backdrop, the role of data intermediaries as envisioned by the DGA must be examined carefully before turning to the question whether the DGA can achieve competitive and trustworthy data sharing through registered third parties. This paper intends to shed light on these and other issues by examining, in-depth, the chapter in the DGA dedicated to data intermediaries (Art. 10–15) from a legal, policy and competition economics perspective. In particular, this paper explores how the experiences made with large-scale digital platforms have shaped the DGA. Thereby, this paper aims to contribute towards a holistic understanding of these provisions as a basis for an informed discussion on the legal framework and on possible alternatives.