Data licensing and data-related provisions in technology transfer agreements : expert report

Data-based products play a rapidly increasing role for the European economy and, consequently, also transactions which make data available for production. As data licences, the most important type of such transactions, become a major determinant for the structure of product markets in the Union, and for undertakings' business opportunities on them, European competition law can contribute to a pro-competitive data licensing activity. Revised versions of the TTBER and its accompanying Guidelines may support this endeavour by increasing legal certainty. As a basis for reflections on such a role of the TT Rules, this Report maps the landscape of data licensing in the Union, its hotspots (Section 4.01), the types of data transacted over (Section 4.02), main legal regimes protecting them (Section 4.03), key transaction structures (Section 4.04), and provisions that are both characteristic for data licence agreements and relevant for their impact on competition (Section 4.05). Against this background, the Report describes economic rationales for data licensing (Section 4.06) and the pro- and anti-competitive potentials of such transactions (Section 5.01). Drawing on these insights, the Report concludes by reviewing the existing TT Rules' appropriateness for data licence agreements and reflects on potential amendments (Sections 5.03(a), 5.03(b)).