A single European data space and data act for the digital single market : on datafication and the viability of a PSD2-like access regime for the platform economy

Abstract

In its new digital strategy for Europe, the EU highlights the need for better data-access and sharing. In line with this priority, it is working on a proposal for a Data Act that aims to provide the underlying legal framework. This paper seeks to disentangle key legal concepts and issues related to datafication that affect the envisaged European Data Space. It reveals that the EU already has a suitable regulatory model under the Payment Services Directive 2 (‘PSD2’). The strategy focuses on market imbalances of the platform economy and challenges the legitimacy of large technological companies (‘Big-Techs’). The latter act as gatekeepers to maintain a key role in data-access and monetise their data dominance. The paper casts into question the existence of a data market, suggesting that the EU already has a viable legislative model provided by the ‘PSD2’ sectoral legislation. Its data-access model could be applied horizontally across data-driven markets and the platform economy without engineering new rules or adding regulatory layers.