What the Data Act specifically prohibits
The Data Act targets two mechanisms that have long kept businesses locked in to their cloud providers. The first is egress fees. Until now, transferring data out of AWS, Azure, or Google Cloud could represent a significant cost — sometimes tens of thousands of euros for large data volumes. These fees discouraged any move, even a justified one. From January 12, 2027, this practice is prohibited for customers switching providers under the regulation. Second, the regulation targets proprietary lock-in: exclusive data formats, undocumented APIs, and artificially long timelines for exporting your own data. The regulation requires open formats and standardized interfaces to facilitate transfers. Both prohibitions apply to commercial cloud services — IaaS, PaaS and SaaS — when provided to professional customers in the European Union.
What the Data Act guarantees you
- Data portability — you can require export of your data in a readable and reusable format.
- Zero exit fees — no additional costs may be charged when switching cloud providers after January 2027.
- Open formats — providers must make interoperable export formats available, without requiring you to stay within their ecosystem.
- Standardized APIs — transfer interfaces must be documented and accessible without technical barriers.
- Simplified termination — contractual conditions cannot create disproportionate obstacles to ending service and moving to another provider.
Who is affected and what is the timeline
The regulation applies to any company established in the European Union that uses commercial cloud services, as well as to providers that offer these services to European customers, even from a third country. SMEs, agencies, and independent developers are therefore affected in the same way as large enterprises. On the calendar side, the regulation entered into force on January 11, 2024 and most obligations have been applying progressively since September 2025. January 12, 2027 specifically marks the entry into application of the prohibition on switching fees, the most directly perceptible provision for businesses in their contractual relationship with their hosting providers.
Checking your contractual situation
Audit your current cloud contracts
Identify all your infrastructure, platform, and SaaS providers and gather the corresponding contracts.
Identify lock-in clauses
Look for mentions of exit fees, export timelines, proprietary formats, or early termination penalties.
Request available export formats
Contact your providers to understand current data export procedures — some already offer open formats without advertising it.
Document current exit costs
Calculate what a full data transfer would cost today to have a concrete negotiating baseline.
Plan migration if relevant
If a provider change is being considered, acting before January 2027 may allow you to negotiate the early removal of these fees or favorable transition conditions right now.
Acting ahead of the January 2027 deadline puts businesses in a stronger negotiating position. Major cloud providers, aware of the approaching legal obligation, are often more open to commercial concessions — voluntary removal of exit fees, export guarantees, migration SLAs — when they are seeking to retain customers before competition intensifies.
Portability as a criterion for choosing a hosting provider
The Data Act changes the nature of the relationship between a company and its cloud hosting provider. Data portability ceases to be a marketing commitment and becomes a verifiable legal obligation. Choosing an independent European hosting provider takes on new meaning: beyond compliance, it means working with a provider whose business model is not built on customer captivity. A hosting provider that does not charge exit fees, documents its APIs, and offers standard export formats respects the spirit of the regulation — and offers a healthier contractual relationship over the long term.
