The Car-Generated Data Regime as an Urgent Challenge for EU Law

Abstract

What will be the mode of the data that today's connected cars accumulate has become a critical issue for the entire automotive sector and its related supply and service industries. If quanta of highly usable data remain largely with car manufacturers, they will become gatekeepers and the entire aftermarket will either fall into complete dependence on them or lose the ability to innovate and compete. Aftermarket leaders and EU institutions are working to ensure that this data is shared from manufacturers to other supply and service providers. However, the most sensitive data is of a personal nature and its widespread sharing in the name of open competition may conflict with the right to privacy and the protection of drivers' personal data. Protecting both competition and data at the same time can be awfully expensive, with negative impacts on consumption and available mobility. This paper seeks to explain this straitjacket of three not entirely consistent requirements and to show the possibilities for emerging legislation within its framework. It shows that there are not only convincing arguments but also strong lobbies behind each of the demands, which makes finding a compromise solution even more difficult. At the end of the analysis, a solution is proposed which, taking into account all the constraints, appears to be the least detrimental to the preservation of all protected rights and legitimate interests.

Keywords: in-vehicle data, connected cars, data sharing, personal data, protection of privacy, competition, gatekeepers