What changed on 12 September 2025 with the Data Act?

The dates, verified against Article 50 of the regulation, are three and worth keeping distinct:

What data can you demand from your machinery vendor?

Article 4 gives the user the right to access the data generated by the connected product, plus the metadata needed to interpret it, "without undue delay, easily, securely, free of charge, in a comprehensive, structured, commonly used and machine-readable format". Free of charge: access to your own data is not a line…

What can the vendor refuse, and how?

Honesty is required here, because the Data Act is not expropriation. The vendor keeps real defenses, and knowing them saves you from unrealistic demands.

What does the Data Act say about cloud and switching providers?

Chapter VI is the part that touches every company, including those without a single sensor in production, because it covers "data processing services": cloud, SaaS, PaaS.

What should you ask for at your next contract renewal?

My position, as a consultant who reads these contracts with clients: the Data Act is used at renewal, not in court. No SME wants to sue its machine supplier. But at the renewal table, knowing what the law already guarantees changes prices and clauses. This is the checklist I use.

Data Act: your machine's data is no longer only the vendor's

The EU Data Act gives users rights over connected product data. What to demand from your machinery vendor and your SaaS at renewal, clause by clause.

There is a well known scene in manufacturing companies around Milan: the line is running, the sensors record everything, and when the company asks the machine builder "give me the telemetry data, I want it for predictive maintenance", the answer is a quote. Your data, generated by your production, on your machine, sold back to you as a premium service.

There is a scene I have watched play out repeatedly in manufacturing companies around Milan: the line is running, the sensors record everything, and when the company asks the machine builder "give me the telemetry data, I want it for predictive maintenance", the answer is a quote. Your data, generated by your production, on your machine, sold back to you as a premium service.