Skip to main content

16. Can there be multiple users for a single connected product, and how should their access be governed?

Various actors may have a legal right based on the contractual arrangements related to the use of a connected product. It is therefore entirely possible for multiple persons to be users of the same connected product. In such a situation, data holders should have mechanisms in place to ensure that each user can access the data to which they are entitled. Users might also conclude separate agreements (e.g. a userto-user sub-lease of a connected product). The following example illustrates, in a non-exhaustive manner, how access to data in a multiple-user scenario could be organised. Other data-sharing arrangements and mechanisms are possible. The Commission’s upcoming model contractual clauses will provide further guidance (cf. Question 71).

Example

Sara goes on holiday to Portugal for 2 weeks and needs to rent a car. The rental agency, Sunny Wheels, owns a fleet of cars bought from Omni Motors, a large car manufacturer. Keen to exercise her rights under the Data Act, Sara asks Sunny Wheels to provide her with a ‘connected car’.

Sunny Wheels has a contract with Omni Motors that ensures that Sunny Wheels and its clients can access the data generated by the car. Omni Motors has put in place a data management system that can simultaneously handle data access requests from the thousands of users of their cars. Sara’s rental agreement contains detailed information on the data generated by the car, including how to access it. The following are two possible ways of organising access to data generated by Sara’s rented car.

  • ‘Corporate accounts’: Sunny Wheels has a corporate account with Omni Motors. Sunny Wheels provides Sara with the details needed to log in to Omni Motors’ website and access the rented car’s data.

  • ‘Individual accounts’: Sunny Wheels informs Sara that she has to set up her own account and enter into a separate data-sharing contract with Omni Motors. Sunny Wheels notifies Omni Motors that Sara will be using the car for 2 weeks. In both cases, Omni Motors is the data holder; Sunny Wheels is a user because it owns the rented car and can access the data; and Sara is also a user because she has, by virtue of the rental agreement with Sunny Wheels, received temporary rights over the rented car.