Delegated act on data access published for consultation

Article 40 of the Digital Services Act (DSA) grants vetted researchers world-wide unprecedented access to the data of very large online platforms and search engines (VLOPs and VLOSEs) to study systemic risks in the European Union. It is a key obligation of the DSA and enables the research community to play its part in scrutinising and safeguarding the online world.     

This week, a draft delegated act laying down the specific conditions under which this data is to be provided has been published for consultation. The delegated act clarifies the procedures leading to the sharing of data and establishes the DSA Data Access Portal to serve as a one-stop-shop for researchers, data providers and Digital Services Coordinators (DSCs).   

The ECAT team has been working closely with DG Connect to shape this delegated act. To do so, we have collaborated with a group of external experts who have informed the draft delegated act through technical reports and discussions with policymakers. This group consisted of: 

• Luca Belli, Founder, Sator Labs
• Asia Biega, Group Leader, Responsible Computing Group, Max Planck Institute for Security and Privacy (MPISP) 
• Carlos Castillo, ICREA Research Professor, University Pompeu Fabra (UPF)   
• Oana Goga, Research Director, French Institute for Research in Computer Science and Automation (Inria)  
• Krishna Gummadi, Scientific Director, Max Planck Institute for Software Systems (MPI-SWS)  
• Paddy Leerssen, Postdoctoral Researcher, Institute for Information Law (IViR), University of Amsterdam 
• Nuria Oliver, Director, European Laboratory for Learning and Intelligent Systems (ELLIS Alicante)  
• Mathias Vermeulen, Public Policy Director, AWO Agency   

Their scientific expertise was invaluable to the development of the delegated act, and we are very grateful for their contributions. 

In addition, the Commission is working with DSCs as well as European Research Council grantees in a pilot project to test the procedures set out in the draft delegated act. The insights gathered in this exercise will contribute to finalise the delegated act before its adoption and help to identify whether additional guidance by the Commission is needed on specific steps of the data access process. The Commission will also continue targeted expert consultations on the basis of this pre-final draft. 

The consultation period has been extended and you can now provide feedback until 10 December 2024. After gathering public feedback, the Commission intends to adopt the rules in the first half of 2025. 

Please find the draft delegated act and provide feedback here 

If you are a researcher who would like to learn more about the delegated act, you can sign up to a Q&A session we are hosting on 19 November, 10:00-11:30.

To learn more about data access under the DSA, see our FAQS.