Source: OJ L, 2023/2854, 22.12.2023

Article 14 Obligation to make data available on the basis of an exceptional need

Summary What does Article 14 of the Data act regulation say?

This article serves as the gateway provision for Chapter V of the Data Act, establishing the core mechanism by which public authorities can compel private data holders to share data in exceptional circumstances.

It creates a conditional obligation on private sector data holders to provide data to public bodies when certain requirements are met, with the full conditions for what qualifies as "exceptional need" being defined in Article 15.

The article is notably brief, functioning as the triggering rule that the rest of the chapter then builds upon and qualifies.

Important points:

Private sector data holders that are legal persons are required to make data available to public authorities upon a duly reasoned request.
The obligation is conditional on the requesting body demonstrating an exceptional need, as defined in Article 15, to carry out statutory duties in the public interest.
Public sector bodies themselves are explicitly excluded from the category of data holders subject to this obligation.

Springlex's summary of the article is a reading aid, not a substitute for the legal text.

Where a public sector body, the Commission, the European Central Bank or a Union body demonstrates an exceptional need, as set out in Article 15, to use certain data, including the relevant metadata necessary to interpret and use those data, to carry out its statutory duties in the public interest, data holders that are legal persons, other than public sectors bodies, which hold those data shall make them available upon a duly reasoned request.

Table of contents

Springlex and this text is meant purely as a documentation tool and has no legal effect. No liability is assumed for its content. The authentic version of this act is the one published in the Official Journal of the European Union.