Digital Transformation: Underestimating the Data Act’s impact on trade secrets’ protection will undermine European industrial competitiveness

The window of opportunity for co-legislators to place Europe on the right track to compete and lead in the data economy may not be open for long.

BusinessEurope and Orgalim - Europe’s Technology Industries, are among the largest industry associations representing a vast number of companies across Europe. We share the objective to support innovation and competitiveness of European businesses, including Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises (SMEs).

As we are nearing the votes on the Data Act in the European Parliament, and specifically in the Committee on Legal Affairs exclusively responsible for the trade secrets provisions in Chapter II and III of the text, we highlight that some amendments do not address sufficiently the challenges the Data Act proposal poses to the trade secrets of Europe’s industrial base and its future innovation capacity in both products and services.

Despite the positive intentions to strengthen the protection of trade secrets via non-disclosure agreements or other technical measures, the very foundation of this legislative approach is weak.

To read our position in full, please download the document above.