Insurance Europe has published its response to a consultation by the European Commission on its upcoming proposal for a Data Act, which aims to facilitate access to and use of data, including business-to business and business-to-government.
Data sharing offers significant opportunities for the insurance sector and its customers. With access to and exchange of more types of data, the insurance industry will be able to offer enhanced products and serve customers more effectively by, for example, improving existing risk models.
Insurers currently, however, face multiple challenges when requesting access to other companies’ data, including legal, technical and competition law concerns. For this reason, the EC’s proposal should take measures to facilitate data collaboration and data partnerships.
Individuals should also be able to grant other parties access to the data generated by them: eg if a customer decides that an insurer may access their driving data, the vehicle manufacturer should grant access on reasonable terms.
Insurance Europe also welcomes the EC's objective to establish a more competitive market for cloud computing services. The concentration of cloud service providers results in a lack of competition in the market and an imbalance in the negotiating power between the parties. The concentration of market power among a few large cloud providers contributes to the limited possibility to switch providers and standard terms and conditions that are offered on a take-it-or-leave-it basis.