8. What determines whether a connected product falls in scope of the Data Act?

A connected product falls within the scope of the Data Act if it has been ‘placed on the Union market’ (Article 2(22)). ‘Placing on the market’ concerns the transfer of ownership, possession, or any other property right between two economic actors that occurs after the manufacturing stage. A connected product is ‘placed on the market’ only once. All subsequent operations are considered as ‘making available on the market’ (Article 2(21)). The concept of placing on the market refers to each individual product, not to a type of product. The requirements laid out in the Data Act are therefore applicable only to individual products that have been placed on the EU market, and not to all products of that type. The Commission notice ’The “Blue Guide” on the implementation of EU product rules’ (2022) served as inspiration for the Data Act’s rules on products and provides comprehensive guidance on this topic. For instance, the Blue Guide identifies situations where a product is not considered to be ‘placed on the market’. These include situations where (i) the product is purchased by a consumer in a third country while they are physically present in that third country and brought by that consumer into the EU for their personal use, and (ii) when the product is manufactured in a Member State with a view to exporting it to a third country.