European Tech CEOs urge EU to rethink Digital Act

In a letter published by the trade association Digital Europe, five European tech CEOs have urged the EU to rethink the proposed Digital Act.

In the letter, the CEOs argue that the legislation does not include the necessary safeguards to protect trade secrets, cybersecurity, health and safety. Bernd Montag, CEO of Siemens Healthineers, highlighted, ‘the proposal in its current form would compromise cybersecurity by overriding current safety requirements for medical devices. Both patients and healthcare professionals could be harmed if malicious entities were to tamper with the security, safety or quality of medical devices.’

Stefan Vilsmeier, CEO of Brainlab, added, ‘ the proposed regulation will weaken Europe’s economy in competing with especially China, by forcing companies to reveal unprecedented insight into related business practices and value chains.’

Further, the provisions for sharing of data between business and government are very broad and can pose a threat of misuse and data breaches and can pose a threat to small and medium-sized industries wanting to provide innovative solutions for the future.

The letter added that the provisions of facilitating cloud switching go against contractual freedom. Christian Klein, CEO and Member of the Executive Board of SAP SE, further emphasised, ‘… the Data Act should also preserve contractual freedom, allowing cloud providers and customers to agree on terms and conditions that reflect business needs. The Act should not question fixed-term contracts as they have proven to be beneficial for both cloud providers and customers.’

It may be mentioned that the Digital Act aims to create a common EU regulatory framework for the data economy and facilitate data sharing to “ensure fairness in the digital environment, stimulate a competitive data market, open opportunities for data-driven innovation and make data more accessible for all.” as per the European Commission.