54. What is the deadline for providers to reduce switching charges so that they are limited to the costs they incur?

Pursuant to Article 29(2) of the Data Act, providers of data processing services must reduce any switching charges (including egress charges) from 11 January 2024 onwards. Concretely, they must limit any switching charges to the costs that they incur in order to make the respective switching operation happen. From 12 January 2027 onwards, providers will no longer be allowed to charge for switching (including data egress). A special rule applies when a customer does not switch but instead asks a provider to provide services in parallel with other services, (e.g. in a multi-cloud deployment model). In such cases of in-parallel use, the provider may still bill the customer for the costs incurred for data egress, even after 12 January 2027. This is because a multi-cloud deployment may imply a constant data egress as opposed to the one-off data egress that can be expected for a switching operation.