Irish competition authority to play EU Data Governance Act role

Last month, the European Commission announced that it had opened infringement proceedings against Ireland in respect of its compliance with the EU Data Governance Act (DGA).

The DGA promotes greater data sharing by businesses and public bodies and began to apply in September 2023. According to the Commission, however, Ireland has yet to give full effect to the EU legislation as it has “has not designated the competent authorities to implement the Data Governance Act”.

Ireland was given two months to respond to the Commission’s letter of formal notice. The Commission has the power to impose fines on countries for continued failure to implement EU legislation.

The Commission sent its letter to Ireland despite the fact Ireland introduced new legislation relevant to the implementation of the DGA the month previously.

The European Union (European Data Governance Act) Regulations 2024, which took effect in June, contain a declaration from Ireland’s minister for the environment, climate and communications, Eamon Ryan, that the regulations are made “for the purpose of giving effect” to the DGA.

In light of the June regulations, Out-Law asked the European Commission to clarify its reasons for opening infringement proceedings. A spokesperson for the Commission said, however, that the institution could not share more details since the infringement procedure is ongoing.

Out-Law also asked the Irish government to clarify the position. A spokesperson for the Department of the Environment, Climate and Communications (DECC) said only that Ireland had received the Commission’s letter and intends to “provide a comprehensive response to the Commission including the progress made in giving effect to the relevant measures”.

Ireland’s alleged non-compliance with the DGA may, however, be to do with an omission from the June regulations.

While the June regulations address Ireland’s DGA obligations to designate at least one ‘competent body’ to facilitate the re-use of public sector data – Ireland has designated the Central Statistics Office as ‘competent body’ for this purpose – there is no similar designation of ‘competent authorities’ for the purposes of the EU legislation.

Under the DGA, competent authorities and competent bodies are different. Competent authorities are responsible for the registration and supervision of data altruism organisations – organisations that make their data available for use in support of “objectives of general interest”, such as to support healthcare, combat climate change, or improve public services. They are also responsible for receiving notification of data intermediation services providers – regulated businesses that will effectively act to facilitate data sharing between data holders, or data subjects, and data users under the DGA.

To address the apparent shortcoming, Out-Law understands that fresh Irish legislation is at an advanced stage of development. That legislation is being designed to implement the remaining provisions of the DGA in Ireland and, Out-Law can reveal, will designate the Competition and Consumer Protection Commission as competent authority for the purposes of the DGA’s provisions on data altruism organisation registration and supervision and data intermediation services provider notification.