Data Act: your new right to switch cloud provider

The EU Data Regulation (Data Act) has applied since 12 September 2025 and is unusually good news for small businesses: it gives you rights against the cloud giants that you could previously only dream of.

The right to switch cloud service

The core is a ban on lock-in. Cloud service providers (IaaS, PaaS, and SaaS) must now make it practically possible to switch:

• Max 2 months’ notice to start a switch.
• Transition period of 30 days (extendable only if the switch is technically impossible to complete in time).
• Switching fees phased out: the supplier may no longer charge for the switch itself as a business model.
• Your data must be exportable in a usable format.

Are you stuck in an expensive contract with the feeling that moving is impossible? That is exactly what the Data Act is meant to change. European alternatives such as Nextcloud, Hetzner, or Scaleway just became more realistic to switch to.

Data from connected products

The Data Act also gives users the right to data generated by their connected products: machines, vehicles, sensors. If you have a workshop or use connected equipment, the manufacturer must share the data with you (and third parties you appoint). This opens for cheaper service and maintenance outside the manufacturer’s own ecosystem.

What you can do today

1. Review your cloud contracts: notice periods and export possibilities must now follow the regulation.
2. Ask the supplier how data export works. Vague answers are themselves an answer.
3. Factor switchability into new tool choices. We note data export in our procurement checklist.

Which Swedish authority will get supervision is not finally determined at the time of writing (PTS is the likely candidate), but the rights already apply.

So if you are in a cloud or tool contract you have wanted to leave, there is no reason to wait for the authority decision: give notice within the two months the regulation allows, request the export in a usable format, and point to the Data Act if you meet resistance. If you are happy with your supplier, on the other hand, it is enough to weigh switchability the next time the contract comes up for renewal.