Recital 32

The aim of this Regulation is not only to foster the development of new, innovative connected products or related services, stimulate innovation on aftermarkets, but also to stimulate the development of entirely novel services making use of the data concerned, including based on data from a variety of connected products or related services. At the same time, this Regulations aims to avoid undermining the investment incentives for the type of connected product from which the data are obtained, for instance, by the use of data to develop a competing connected product which is considered to be interchangeable or substitutable by users, in particular on the basis of the connected product’s characteristics, its price and intended use. This Regulation provides for no prohibition on the development of a related service using data obtained under this Regulation as this would have an undesirable discouraging effect on innovation. Prohibiting the use of data accessed under this Regulation for developing a competing connected product protects data holders’ innovation efforts. Whether a connected product competes with the connected product from which the data originates depends on whether the two connected products are in competition on the same product market. This is to be determined on the basis of the established principles of Union competition law for defining the relevant product market. However, lawful purposes for the use of the data could include reverse engineering, provided that it complies with the requirements laid down in this Regulation and in Union or national law. This may be the case for the purposes of repairing or prolonging the lifetime of a connected product or for the provision of aftermarket services to connected products.