Art. 20 Compensation in cases of an exceptional need | Data act regulation | Data act

This article governs the financial arrangements between data holders and public sector bodies (including the Commission, European Central Bank, and Union bodies) when data is shared under the exceptional need provisions established in Article 15.

It draws a clear distinction between two scenarios: data shared during a public emergency, which must be provided free of charge by larger data holders, and data shared for other public interest tasks, for which data holders are entitled to fair compensation covering their costs and a reasonable margin.

Important points:

Data holders (other than microenterprises and small enterprises) must provide data free of charge in response to a public emergency, though they may request public acknowledgement from the receiving body.
For all other exceptional need requests, data holders are entitled to fair compensation covering technical and organisational costs, including anonymisation, pseudonymisation, aggregation, and technical adaptation, plus a reasonable margin.
Data holders are not entitled to any compensation where the public interest task is the production of official statistics and national law prohibits the purchase of such data.

1. Data holders other than microenterprises and small enterprises shall make available data necessary to respond to a public emergency pursuant to Article 15(1), point (a), free of charge. The public sector body, the Commission, the European Central Bank or the Union body that has received data shall provide public acknowledgement to the data holder if requested by the data holder.
1. The data holder shall be entitled to fair compensation for making data available in compliance with a request made pursuant to Article 15(1), point (b). Such compensation shall cover the technical and organisational costs incurred to comply with the request including, where applicable, the costs of anonymisation, pseudonymisation, aggregation and of technical adaptation, and a reasonable margin. Upon request of the public sector body, the Commission, the European Central Bank or the Union body, the data holder shall provide information on the basis for the calculation of the costs and the reasonable margin.
1. Paragraph 2 shall also apply where a microenterprise and small enterprise claims compensation for making data available.
1. Data holders shall not be entitled to compensation for making data available in compliance with a request made pursuant to Article 15(1), point (b), where the specific task carried out in the public interest is the production of official statistics and where the purchase of data is not allowed by national law. Member States shall notify the Commission where the purchase of data for the production of official statistics is not allowed by national law.
1. Where the public sector body, the Commission, the European Central Bank or the Union body disagrees with the level of compensation requested by the data holder, they may lodge a complaint with the competent authority designated pursuant to Article 37 of the Member State where the data holder is established.