The European Council recently confirmed the agreement on the draft compromise text for the European Data Act, also known as the EU Data Act. This agreement was reached following negotiations between the European Parliament and the Council of the EU on June 28th.
The primary objective of the EU Data Act is to enhance the European Union's data economy. It aims to achieve this by various means, including unlocking industrial data, improving its accessibility and usability, simplifying the transition between cloud and edge services, and fostering a competitive and dependable European cloud services market.
Simultaneously, the UK's OFCOM, the regulatory authority for
communications, has taken steps to address issues in the cloud
infrastructure services market. OFCOM provisionally proposed
referring the market for cloud infrastructure services to the
Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) for a comprehensive market
investigation. This move was prompted by OFCOM's initial
findings in its market study on public cloud services, which
indicated several factors inhibiting competition in the UK cloud
infrastructure market. Notably, the market is heavily concentrated,
with Amazon Web Services (AWS) and Microsoft Azure dominating the
landscape.
Our full whitepaper, available for download,explores OFCOM's key findings
regarding the cloud infrastructure services market, potential
impacts of OFCOM's proposed interventions for your business ,
and how the EU Data Act could influence the transition between
cloud infrastructure providers.
Key finds from our Multi-Cloud Services: OFCOM and European
Commission Diverge on Proposed Measures to Regulate the Cloud
Infrastructure Market include:
Market Features Impeding Multi-Cloud Strategies
OFCOM identified three key features of the cloud infrastructure
market that pose challenges for customers looking to switch between
providers and employ multiple cloud infrastructure services:
Data Transfer ("egress") Fees: Customers
are charged when transferring data out of a cloud provider's
infrastructure.
Technical Restrictions on Interoperability: Major
infrastructure providers implement practices that require
significant effort from customers to adapt their applications and
data for alternative cloud platforms.
Committed spend discounts: The structure of these
discounts can incentivize customers to remain with a single cloud
infrastructure provider.
OFCOM and European Commission Market Interventions
Data Transfer Fees
OFCOM proposed three potential interventions regarding data
transfer fees:
Equalize Data Transfer Fees: Set data transfer
charges at a rate no higher than internal data transfer costs
within a specific cloud service.
Price Controls on Data Transfer Fees "at
cost": Cloud providers can recover costs associated
with transferring customer data, charging users in accordance with
their usage.
Prevent Providers from Charging for Data Egress:
Consider prohibiting providers from charging for data egress
activities, although this could impact other charges.
Article 25 of the EU Data Act suggests gradually eliminating data
transfer charges from the market within three years of the
act's implementation.
Technical Restrictions on Interoperability
OFCOM proposed three potential interventions to address
interoperability issues:
Transparency Requirements: Mandate cloud providers
to provide documentation explaining compatibility with open-source
software.
Easier Interoperability for First-party Services:
Make elements of a provider's cloud infrastructure services
compatible with those of other providers.
Standardization of Cloud Technologies: Promote the
use of industry standards and open-source software or potentially
mandate specific standards.
Article 26 of the EU Data Act classifies providers based on their
obligations when customers switch to a new provider, emphasizing
the importance of open interfaces, compatibility, and data
exportability.
What are the next steps?
OFCOM will issue a final decision on a market investigation
reference alongside its market study final report which will be
published no later than 5 October 2023.
For an expanded assessment into OFCOMs report and where it
diverges with the EUs Data Act please download the Multi-Cloud Services: OFCOM and European
Commission Diverge on Proposed Measures to Regulate the Cloud
Infrastructure Market whitepaper and get in touch with Paul
Graham (paul.graham@fieldfisher.com) to
discuss.
The content of this article is intended to provide a general guide to the subject matter. Specialist advice should be sought about your specific circumstances.