Kiri

1

4 August 2025

Subject: CEO letter – Request for postponement and meaningful revision of the Data Act

Dear President von der Leyen, Dear Executive Vice-Presidents Virkkunen and Séjourné, Dear Commissioner Dombrovskis,

As European business leaders, we are fully committed to building a competitive and resilient Europe, anchored in technological leadership, trust and innovation. The Data Act aims to open up Europe’s vast industrial and service data potential – but unless recalibrated, it risks becoming a major regulatory barrier to our competitiveness.

The European Commission plans to introduce a digital package by the end of 2025 to streamline digital legislation. We urge that, alongside the AI Act, this package must also reassess and simplify the Data Act.1 Until then, the Data Act’s application should be postponed.

Europe already leads in connected products and industrial services. Yet companies across sectors – from manufacturing to transport, energy, mobility and healthcare – face disproportionate burdens. The Act’s broad scope, legal uncertainty and heavy obligations related to data sharing and IP exposure leave companies unclear about their responsibilities whilst increasing costs and legal risks. With the 12 September 2025 deadline approaching, businesses face growing uncertainty that threatens EU-wide operations and discourages investment in new digital offerings.

Like the AI Act, the Data Act is a horizontal regulation with far-reaching implications for industrial sectors. It mandates data provision to customers and competitors even where there is no market failure, breaking with the EU’s tradition of contractual freedom. It undermines investment incentives and can expose proprietary data, intellectual property and trade secrets. The uniform contractual and technical obligations for cloud and edge services also threaten Europe’s globally competitive software industry, which relies on long-term R&D and customised, business-critical solutions.

The Data Act’s risks are compounded by the potential for overreaching interpretations. For example, only months before entry into force, businesses have been told that data access and cloud switching rights should apply retroactively to existing contracts, not only those signed after 12 September 2025. For many companies – particularly European providers operating solely within the EU – this would mean renegotiating every ongoing contract within a few months, threatening business continuity.

1 For in-depth recommendations, see DIGITALEUROPE, Executive Brief: Removing regulatory burden for a more competitive and resilient Europe, available at https://www.digitaleurope.org/resources/executive-brief-removing-regulatory-burden-for-a-more- competitive-and-resilient-europe/.

2

Businesses also lack the necessary compliance support. Voluntary model contracts for data sharing and standard clauses for cloud services have yet to be recognised, and the designation of national authorities remains unclear.

As currently designed, the Data Act introduces operational risks that could halt rather than foster data-driven innovation, leading to reduced investment in connected products, cloud services and the AI systems that increasingly depend on them.

We therefore urge the Commission to take two essential steps:

▪ Immediately postpone the application of the Data Act by two years; and

▪ Ensure a thorough revision of the regulation through the upcoming digital package.

The Data Act should empower Europe’s data economy, not overregulate it. We, CEOs across Europe, are united in the view that regulatory simplification is the single most powerful lever to attract investment and accelerate innovation. A strategic pause, coupled with a commitment to review and simplify the regulation, would send a strong signal to Europe’s digital and industrial ecosystems.

Yours sincerely,

Péter Fekete, CEO, 4iG Group Prof. Dr. Robert Mayr, Chairman of the Board (Chief Executive Officer), DATEV Mariusz Gralewski, Founder & CEO, Docplanner Group Christian Klein, Chief Executive Officer and Chairman of the Executive Board, SAP Olivier Blum, Chief Executive Officer, Schneider Electric Dr. Roland Busch, President and Chief Executive Officer, Siemens

Cecilia Bonefeld-Dahl, Director General, DIGITALEUROPE Jaromír Hanzal, Director, AAVIT, Czechia Andreas Holbak Espersen, Industry Director, DI Digital, Danish ICT and Electronics Federation, Denmark Natasha Friis Saxberg, Chief Executive Officer, IT-Branchen, Denmark Stella Morabito, Director General, Afnum, French Alliance of Digital Industries, France Yota Paparidou, President of the Board, SEPE, Federation of Hellenic ICT Enterprises, Greece Simonas Černiauskas, CEO, Infobalt, Lithuania Jean Diederich, President, APSI, Luxembourg Vesna Nahtigal, General Manager, GSZ, Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Slovenia, Slovenia

Copy to: Roberto Viola, Director-General, Directorate-General for Communications Networks, Content and Technology, European Commission

1

4 August 2025

Subject: CEO letter – Request for postponement and meaningful revision of the Data Act

Dear President von der Leyen, Dear Executive Vice-Presidents Virkkunen and Séjourné, Dear Commissioner Dombrovskis,

As European business leaders, we are fully committed to building a competitive and resilient Europe, anchored in technological leadership, trust and innovation. The Data Act aims to open up Europe’s vast industrial and service data potential – but unless recalibrated, it risks becoming a major regulatory barrier to our competitiveness.

The European Commission plans to introduce a digital package by the end of 2025 to streamline digital legislation. We urge that, alongside the AI Act, this package must also reassess and simplify the Data Act.1 Until then, the Data Act’s application should be postponed.

Europe already leads in connected products and industrial services. Yet companies across sectors – from manufacturing to transport, energy, mobility and healthcare – face disproportionate burdens. The Act’s broad scope, legal uncertainty and heavy obligations related to data sharing and IP exposure leave companies unclear about their responsibilities whilst increasing costs and legal risks. With the 12 September 2025 deadline approaching, businesses face growing uncertainty that threatens EU-wide operations and discourages investment in new digital offerings.

Like the AI Act, the Data Act is a horizontal regulation with far-reaching implications for industrial sectors. It mandates data provision to customers and competitors even where there is no market failure, breaking with the EU’s tradition of contractual freedom. It undermines investment incentives and can expose proprietary data, intellectual property and trade secrets. The uniform contractual and technical obligations for cloud and edge services also threaten Europe’s globally competitive software industry, which relies on long-term R&D and customised, business-critical solutions.

The Data Act’s risks are compounded by the potential for overreaching interpretations. For example, only months before entry into force, businesses have been told that data access and cloud switching rights should apply retroactively to existing contracts, not only those signed after 12 September 2025. For many companies – particularly European providers operating solely within the EU – this would mean renegotiating every ongoing contract within a few months, threatening business continuity.

1 For in-depth recommendations, see DIGITALEUROPE, Executive Brief: Removing regulatory burden for a more competitive and resilient Europe, available at https://www.digitaleurope.org/resources/executive-brief-removing-regulatory-burden-for-a-more- competitive-and-resilient-europe/.

2

Businesses also lack the necessary compliance support. Voluntary model contracts for data sharing and standard clauses for cloud services have yet to be recognised, and the designation of national authorities remains unclear.

As currently designed, the Data Act introduces operational risks that could halt rather than foster data-driven innovation, leading to reduced investment in connected products, cloud services and the AI systems that increasingly depend on them.

We therefore urge the Commission to take two essential steps:

▪ Immediately postpone the application of the Data Act by two years; and

▪ Ensure a thorough revision of the regulation through the upcoming digital package.

The Data Act should empower Europe’s data economy, not overregulate it. We, CEOs across Europe, are united in the view that regulatory simplification is the single most powerful lever to attract investment and accelerate innovation. A strategic pause, coupled with a commitment to review and simplify the regulation, would send a strong signal to Europe’s digital and industrial ecosystems.

Yours sincerely,

Péter Fekete, CEO, 4iG Group Prof. Dr. Robert Mayr, Chairman of the Board (Chief Executive Officer), DATEV Mariusz Gralewski, Founder & CEO, Docplanner Group Christian Klein, Chief Executive Officer and Chairman of the Executive Board, SAP Olivier Blum, Chief Executive Officer, Schneider Electric Dr. Roland Busch, President and Chief Executive Officer, Siemens

Cecilia Bonefeld-Dahl, Director General, DIGITALEUROPE Jaromír Hanzal, Director, AAVIT, Czechia Andreas Holbak Espersen, Industry Director, DI Digital, Danish ICT and Electronics Federation, Denmark Natasha Friis Saxberg, Chief Executive Officer, IT-Branchen, Denmark Stella Morabito, Director General, Afnum, French Alliance of Digital Industries, France Yota Paparidou, President of the Board, SEPE, Federation of Hellenic ICT Enterprises, Greece Simonas Černiauskas, CEO, Infobalt, Lithuania Jean Diederich, President, APSI, Luxembourg Vesna Nahtigal, General Manager, GSZ, Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Slovenia, Slovenia

Copy to: Roberto Viola, Director-General, Directorate-General for Communications Networks, Content and Technology, European Commission