What the Data Act regulates — and what it does not
The Data Act lays down harmonised rules on fair access to and use of data (Article 1). It is not AI regulation: its subject is the data generated by connected products and related services — who may access it, on what terms it may be shared, and how customers move between data-processing services. That scope reaches deep into transport and logistics, because the equipment the sector runs on — trucks with telematics and on-board units, reefers and other sensor-fitted assets, and connected terminal and warehouse systems — will typically qualify as the 'connected products' and 'related services' the Act addresses. The baseline it sets is a reversal of the old default: the data such products generate is, in principle, accessible to the user rather than held exclusively by the manufacturer or service provider.
Access to connected-product data, and sharing it onward (Articles 3 and 5)
Chapter II attaches the data to the user of the connected product. Article 3(1) requires connected products to be designed and manufactured — and related services to be designed and provided — so that the product and related-service data are, by default, easily, securely, free of charge and in a comprehensive, structured, commonly used and machine-readable format, and, where technically feasible, directly accessible to the user. Article 5 goes a step further: on the user's request, the data holder must make that data available to a third party of the user's choice, without undue delay, at the same quality available to the data holder, free of charge to the user and in the same machine-readable format — and, where relevant and technically feasible, continuously and in real time. For a carrier or shipper this means vehicle and machine data need no longer sit exclusively with the OEM or supplier; equally, whoever holds such data carries the corresponding duty to make it accessible.
The terms of business-to-business sharing: FRAND and unfair terms (Articles 8 and 13)
The Act regulates the terms of sharing, not only the fact of it. Where a data holder is obliged to make data available to a data recipient — including at a user's direction under Article 5, or under other Union or national law — Article 8 requires the arrangements to be agreed on fair, reasonable and non-discriminatory (FRAND) terms and in a transparent manner. Separately, Article 13 provides that a contractual term on data access and use, or on liability and remedies for the breach or termination of data-related obligations, that one enterprise has unilaterally imposed on another is not binding on that other enterprise if it is unfair. Both provisions target the familiar chain pattern in which a single party controls both the data and the standard, and they point to a concrete exposure: existing data, supply and platform contracts are the most likely place to find terms that no longer hold.
Switching between cloud services (Chapter VI)
For logistics IT — transport and warehouse management systems, port community systems and data-sharing platforms — Chapter VI takes aim at vendor lock-in. Under Article 23, providers of data-processing services must remove obstacles to effective switching so a customer can move to another provider of the same service type, to on-premises ICT infrastructure, or run several providers in parallel. The cost side follows a fixed schedule under Article 29: only reduced, cost-based switching charges are permitted between 11 January 2024 and 12 January 2027, after which no switching charges may be imposed at all. For a compliance owner this narrows lock-in and widens the room to negotiate when selecting or replacing a supplier.
Timeline: what applies now, and what applies later (Article 50)
The core of the Regulation has applied since 12 September 2025; it entered into force on the twentieth day after publication in the Official Journal, on 11 January 2024. Application is deliberately staggered. The Article 3(1) design obligation applies only to connected products and related services placed on the market after 12 September 2026, so it bites on newly designed equipment rather than the existing fleet. The unfair-terms rules in Chapter IV apply to contracts concluded after 12 September 2025 and reach contracts concluded on or before that date from 12 September 2027, where those contracts are of indefinite duration or run for at least ten years from 11 January 2024. The direction of travel is fixed and already in force: connected-product data is accessible and shareable by default, and the sharing terms and switching rules tighten on a published schedule.
What to do
Compile a connected-data inventory before you field your first request: for every connected product and related service you use or hold — vehicles, reefers, terminal and warehouse equipment and the platforms behind them — record what data it generates, who currently holds it, who is entitled to access it, and whether the governing contracts meet the FRAND and unfair-terms tests. Whether any given duty applies still depends on your role in each data flow, but without that map you cannot honour an access or sharing request, or identify the contract terms most likely to be non-compliant.
Sources
Last verified against the primary sources: 2026-07-09
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