Art. 15 Exceptional need to use data | Data act regulation | Data act

This article defines the precise conditions under which an "exceptional need" to access private sector data — as invoked under Article 14 — can legitimately be claimed by public sector bodies, the Commission, the European Central Bank, or Union bodies.

It sets a deliberately high bar, restricting such need to two narrow circumstances: responding to a public emergency when no timely alternative exists, or fulfilling a specific legally mandated public interest task using only non-personal data, but only after all other means of obtaining that data have been exhausted.

The article also carves out two notable exemptions, one protecting microenterprises and small enterprises from the broader non-emergency route, and another relieving public bodies from having to prove they attempted a market purchase when producing official statistics and national law prohibits such purchases.

Important points:

The "exceptional need" threshold is strictly defined — public sector bodies, the Commission, the European Central Bank, and Union bodies can only invoke it in a public emergency or, for non-personal data only, when all other means of obtaining the data have been exhausted.
Microenterprises and small enterprises are protected from the non-emergency route for compelling data access under this Chapter.
The obligation to demonstrate that a market purchase was attempted does not apply where national law prohibits purchasing data for the production of official statistics.

1. An exceptional need to use certain data within the meaning of this Chapter shall be limited in time and scope and shall be considered to exist only in any of the following circumstances:
  1. where the data requested is necessary to respond to a public emergency and the public sector body, the Commission, the European Central Bank or the Union body is unable to obtain such data by alternative means in a timely and effective manner under equivalent conditions;
  2. in circumstances not covered by point (a) and only insofar as non-personal data is concerned, where:
    a public sector body, the Commission, the European Central Bank or a Union body is acting on the basis of Union or national law and has identified specific data, the lack of which prevents it from fulfilling a specific task carried out in the public interest, that has been explicitly provided for by law, such as the production of official statistics or the mitigation of or recovery from a public emergency; and
    the public sector body, the Commission, the European Central Bank or the Union body has exhausted all other means at its disposal to obtain such data, including purchase of non-personal data on the market by offering market rates, or by relying on existing obligations to make data available or the adoption of new legislative measures which could guarantee the timely availability of the data.
1. Paragraph 1, point (b), shall not apply to microenterprises and small enterprises.
1. The obligation to demonstrate that the public sector body was unable to obtain non-personal data by purchasing them on the market shall not apply where the specific task carried out in the public interest is the production of official statistics and where the purchase of such data is not allowed by national law.