Leaving the cloud: what the EU Data Act changes from January 2027

Anyone leaving a data platform budgets for two blocks of cost: their own work, and whatever the incumbent charges for handing the data back. The second block was long the more effective one, because it could not be planned for. It is disappearing — not through competition, but through regulation.

What has applied since September 2025

The European Data Act, Regulation (EU) 2023/2854, has applied in its substantive provisions since 12 September 2025. Chapter VI governs switching between data processing services. Article 23 obliges providers not to impose obstacles to switching and to remove existing ones — explicitly including “pre-commercial, commercial, technical, contractual and organisational” obstacles.

Worth noting for anyone considering repatriation: alongside switching to another provider, Article 23 explicitly names switching to “ICT infrastructure on the customer's own premises”. The route back to your own data centre is not a special case you have to argue for. It is one of the two cases the regulation is about.

The date that matters: 12 January 2027

Article 29 does not abolish switching charges at a stroke but in two steps. In the current step a provider may charge only reduced switching charges, and those may not exceed the costs the provider directly incurs for that particular switch. After that, they fall away entirely.

There is also a duty to inform that you can already use today: providers must clearly tell prospective customers about the standard service fees that may apply, about penalties for early termination, and about the reduced switching charges that could arise in this period. If you are about to sign, you can ask for these figures rather than discover them later.

30 days, not 30 weeks

The second lever is time. Article 25 prescribes what the contract must contain, and sets hard limits:

• A binding transition period of no more than 30 calendar days in which the switch is completed
• A notice period for initiating the switch that may not exceed two months
• Where switching within 30 days is technically unfeasible, the provider must say so within 14 working days and propose another period — at most seven months
• The customer may extend the transition period once

The seven-month clause is the interesting part. It is not a back door for the provider but a duty to justify: whoever cannot meet the 30 days has to say so, and promptly. That shifts the burden of proof. Until now the customer had to demonstrate that an exit was feasible; now the provider has to demonstrate that it is not.

What this does not mean

It does not make leaving free. What falls away is the charge for performing the switch — not your own work. Translating schemas, rebuilding permissions, reconciling reports, checking time zones: that stays, and it is the larger item. Standard service fees stay too; the regulation governs the exit, not the operation.

Nor does it change whether a move makes sense on the merits. A provider whose service fits does not become a problem because you could now leave more easily. The Data Act opens the door. Whether you walk through it remains a calculation everyone has to do for themselves.

What I would check before the next contract round

1. 1Does the current contract carry a notice period longer than two months? That is hard to reconcile with Article 25.
2. 2What switching charges does the provider quote today, and how do they justify them as costs directly incurred?
3. 3Is there written information under Article 29 on standard service fees and early-termination penalties? If not, request it.
4. 4How long would an exit actually take — and would you know without asking the provider?

The fourth question is the uncomfortable one, because it is not addressed to the provider. A regulation can ban charges and set deadlines. Whether your data runs somewhere else within 30 days depends on how well you know what you have.