Most businesses store critical data across half a dozen cloud platforms and don't think twice about it. But if someone asked you tomorrow to pull everything out of your CRM, your project management tool, or your digital asset library, could you actually do it? For a lot of organisations, the honest answer is no. Here's what's changed, and why it matters more than you might think.
What the EU Data Act Actually Gives You
Since September 2025, the EU Data Act has been in force across all member states. It gives businesses a set of enforceable rights over the data they generate and store within cloud services. These aren't vague principles. They're binding obligations on providers.
In practical terms, you now have the right to export your data in structured, commonly used and machine-readable formats. During the current transition period (until January 2027), providers can only charge fees that cover their direct costs for the switching process. And they have to actively support the process if you decide to move to a different service, completing the transition within a maximum of 30 calendar days after a notice period of up to two months.
By 12 January 2027, all switching charges between cloud and data processing providers will be fully eliminated. That means the financial barriers that have kept businesses locked into poor-fit software for years are being dismantled on a fixed timeline.
If your business operates in the EU or uses services provided to EU customers, these rights apply now.
Where Most Businesses Get Caught Out
The tricky part is that most organisations don't realise what counts as "their data" under these rules. It's easy to think of data portability as downloading a CSV or grabbing a ZIP file of your documents. But the EU Data Act goes further than that.
Take a marketing team managing thousands of brand assets across a digital asset management (DAM) platform. The files themselves are only part of the picture. Each image, video or document carries metadata, usage rights, licence restrictions and consent records. If you export the files but lose that context, you've got a library of content you can't legally use with confidence.
The overlap between the EU Data Act and DAM portability rules is where this gets complicated. When rights and permissions data can't travel with the assets, a platform switch becomes a compliance risk instead of a clean break.
The same principle applies across other software categories. If your accounting platform or customer database can't export transaction histories, consent records and audit trails in a usable format, the data you get back is incomplete.
The Switching Rights You Probably Haven't Used
Beyond data export, the EU Data Act includes a set of switching rights that most businesses haven't tested yet.
Providers must allow you to initiate the switching process with no more than two months' notice. They can't impose technical barriers that make migration unnecessarily difficult, and they have to offer interoperable formats so your data works in the next system you choose.
These rules apply broadly to cloud infrastructure, platforms and SaaS products. The regulation doesn't ban long-term contracts outright, but it does stop providers from using data as leverage to keep you locked in. Early termination fees may still apply, but they'll need to be proportionate.
How to Check Whether Your Providers Comply
You don't need a legal team to start asking the right questions. A few direct ones will tell you a lot:
- Can you export all your data in a structured, machine-readable format?
- Does the export include metadata, permissions and any associated rights information?
- What's the process and timeline for a full data migration?
- Are there any fees tied to switching or exporting?
If your provider can't give clear answers to these, that's a red flag. The EU Data Act puts the burden on them to make portability a real option, not just possible on paper.
For businesses managing licensed content, images or regulated records, ask specifically whether rights and consent data will be preserved during export. Losing that information can create legal exposure you won't spot until something goes wrong.
Don't Wait Until You Need to Move
The best time to check your data portability options is before you need them. Most businesses only think about this when they're already frustrated with a provider or halfway through a migration that's gone sideways.
Run a test export from your key platforms now. See what comes out, what's missing and what format it arrives in. If the results fall short of what the EU Data Act requires, you'll have a much stronger position to push for changes while you're still a paying customer. Your tech stack will change over time. The organisations that treat data portability as an ongoing check will be the ones that switch cleanly when the time comes.
