Art. 22 Mutual assistance and cross-border cooperation | Data act regulation | Data act

This article sits within Chapter V, which governs exceptional public sector access to privately held data, and serves as the coordination and cross-border cooperation mechanism for that chapter.

It establishes that public sector bodies, the Commission, the European Central Bank, and Union bodies must cooperate with one another to implement the chapter consistently.

Crucially, it introduces a procedural safeguard for cross-border data requests: where a requesting body targets a data holder in another Member State, it must first notify that Member State's competent authority, which will then examine and either transmit or reject the request before it reaches the data holder.

Important points:

Public sector bodies, the Commission, the European Central Bank, and Union bodies are required to cooperate and assist one another to implement Chapter V consistently.
For cross-border data requests, the competent authority of the Member State where the data holder is established acts as a gatekeeper, examining the request against the requirements of Article 17 before deciding to transmit or reject it.
Any data exchanged in the context of mutual assistance under this article cannot be used for purposes other than those for which it was requested.

1. Public sector bodies, the Commission, the European Central Bank and Union bodies shall cooperate and assist one another, to implement this Chapter in a consistent manner.
1. Any data exchanged in the context of assistance requested and provided pursuant to paragraph 1 shall not be used in a manner incompatible with the purpose for which they were requested.
1. Where a public sector body intends to request data from a data holder established in another Member State, it shall first notify the competent authority designated pursuant to Article 37 in that Member State of that intention. This requirement shall also apply to requests by the Commission, the European Central Bank and Union bodies. The request shall be examined by the competent authority of the Member State where the data holder is established.
1. After having examined the request in light of the requirements laid down in Article 17, the relevant competent authority shall, without undue delay, take one of the following actions:
  1. transmit the request to the data holder and, if applicable, advise the requesting public sector body, the Commission, the European Central Bank or the Union body of the need, if any, to cooperate with public sector bodies of the Member State in which the data holder is established with the aim of reducing the administrative burden on the data holder in complying with the request;
  2. reject the request on duly substantiated grounds in accordance with this Chapter.
2. The requesting public sector body, the Commission, the European Central Bank and the Union body shall take into account the advice of and the grounds provided by the relevant competent authority pursuant to the first subparagraph before taking any further action such as resubmitting the request, if applicable.