In this EDSC podcast episode, Damian Boeselager, member of the EU Parliament and founder of the pan-European party VOLT, discusses the complexities of data regulation and the evolving landscape of digital rights. He highlights the Data Act, a comprehensive law aiming to regulate the flow of non-personal data across all sectors, distinguishing between different types of data and service contracts and emphasizing the rights of data owners versus data holders. Boeselager points out the underutilization of industrial data, such as laundry machines’ potential in detecting seismic anomalies, and stresses the importance of creating liquid data markets and strengthening data intermediaries for business innovation. The political journey of the Data Act, set to be enforced about two years after negotiations concluded in July 2023, was marked by both collaboration among parliamentarians and challenges, including attempts by corporate leaders to undermine the “Boeselager” amendments. Listen to the whole episode here.