Chapter II: Business to consumer and business to business data sharing

and thus the actual possibilities of influence. We therefore argue for a specification of the data holder as the one who has de facto control over the data and point out that in many industrial use cases this role is simultaneously filled by the user of the component in question. With regard to the vehicle market, for example, the question arises as to who is to be regarded as the "data holder" in the case of so-called "third-party apps" that are offered as part of the "vehicle" product and generate data.

Art. 2 (13) DA-E: The term "service type" is of central importance for the delimitation of the scope of application of the regulations provided for in Chapter VI. However, the definition leaves too much room for interpretation, as the term "service model" on which it is based is not specified more precisely and there is also no uniform definition of "service model" in the IT sector.

The DA-E refrains from defining the terms "manufacturer" or "service provider", although manufacturers and service providers are to be equally covered by the scope of application of the Data Act, cf. Art. 1 (2 a) DA-E.

Chapter II: Business to consumer and business to business data sharing

As the EU Commission itself rightly emphasises in recital 28, the tension between the legitimate interests of the "data holder" and the "user" or "data recipient" must be equally taken into account in statutory data access regulations. Any legislative intervention must take into account that nonpersonal industrial data is based on prior investment in the collection, storage, structuring and (pre-)processing of the data and has an economic value. The development and implementation of networked industrial plants requires high investment and is know-how-intensive. An Industry 4.0 solution is composed of sensors, actuators, connectivity, data concepts and often customised service offerings. Data are not free goods and markets must provide sufficient incentives for investments in connected machines and databased services. The regulatory framework must protect these investments. In many industrial B2B use cases, the "data holder" can be classified as an SME. The technical and legal obligation to make data available will place a significant burden on such companies - especially those that produce in small quantities and cannot benefit from economies of scale. It is therefore to be welcomed that micro and small enterprises are to be exempted from the obligations of Chapter II.

The legislative proposal chooses a broad, horizontal approach without sufficiently taking into account the different requirements and needs of different sectors in the B2B and B2C relationship. The "one-size fits all" approach proposed in the Data Act does not do justice to these heterogeneous market relationships. For example, (pre-) contractual information and