Hello, I'm James.

And I'm Eilish.

And we're both tech and data specialists from fieldfisher Silicon Valley.

Today we're going to give you a bit of a flavor of the EU's Data Act and what it means for

you and your business. So today, the Council of the European Union formally announced the agreed text of the Data Act,

marking a key milestone in the Act's journey to becoming law.

Today, we're just going to break down some of key provisions that you're going to need to think about,

how it applies to internet-connected devices, mandatory B2G sharing, and of course, international transfers of data.

All right, so let's start with the key question, I'm sure, on all our listeners' mind, which is, what exactly is the Data Act? And where did it come from?

Great. Thanks, James. So the EU Data Act's one of the main deliverables for the European Commission's European Strategy for Data and part of the Commission's broader action plan to ensure Europe's digital sovereignty by 2030, by supporting

responsible access, broader sharing, and reuse of personal and non-personal data. So global data's

growing. In 2018, global data sat at around 33 zetabyte. So for any of our listeners that might feel

the need to Google that, one zetabyte is equal to a zetabyte. So for any of our listeners that might feel the need to Google that,

one zetabyte is equal to a trillion gigabytes. It's huge. So in 2025, global data is expected

to sit 175 zetabytes. That's a five-fold increase. So the European Commission is keen to

unlock those troves of industrial

data and leverage it within the single market to enable better competition against non-EU

tech companies. In addition, in order to unlock the potential of artificial intelligence,

digital companies need to be able to access rich and voluminous data sets. So the Data Act forms one part that

puzzle to make it easier for European businesses to access, share and exploit this data

for high economic reward. Okay. So for those listeners who are thinking, all right, you've got

my attention, but what do I need to do now? Is the Data Act in force yet? It's a great question, James. So EU institutions reached

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