With the rise of artificial intelligence, the term "data economy" has somewhat fallen into the shadows, even though the European data market/data economy remains substantial. According to a 2025 study commissioned by the European Commission, data market has exceeded €115 billion in 2025 and is expected to reach €148 billion by 2030. The broader term - data economy - was already worth €325 billion in 2019 (2,6% of the EU's GDP) and was projected to reach €500 billion by 2025.
The roadblocks for data-driven companies in Europe to scale, become globally competitive and benefit EU's economy are largely similar across sectors: the definition of personal data under the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) is broad, companies have limited capacity to navigate fragmented interpretations of the GDPR across EU Member States, and the non-binding recommendations and guidelines by the European Data Protection Board (EDBP) provide only limited help. While large companies (and usually non-European companies) have the resources to deal with local authorities and even challenge the EDBP, smaller companies are left to cope with fragmented rules across the EU.
