BELGIUM Law and Practice Contributed by: Benjamin Docquir and Margo Cornette, Osborne Clarke
ing Belgian qualified entities to do the same abroad; • Material scope extension: The scenarios in which a class action can be initiated have been broadened, and the Belgian CEL now expressly includes the instruments listed in Annex 1 of the RAD, such as the MiFID II Directive and the Prospectus Directive, including the abusive selling of financial prod - ucts. So far, few class actions have been initiated: about a dozen of these actions have been filed. Class actions are relatively rare, and there are currently no signs that they will become more frequent in the future. It remains to be seen whether the Representative Actions Directive will have any impact on the frequency of class actions once it is implemented in Belgian law. At this stage, the authors anticipate that the imple - mentation of the Directive is unlikely to bring any major increase in the number of class actions filed considering that Belgian law is already sub - stantially in line with the Directive. 3. Data Regulation on IoT Providers, Data Holders and Data Processing Services 3.1 Objectives and Scope of Data Regulation Although the Data Act has entered into force, many of its provisions will only become appli - cable 20 months after 11 January 2024 – ie, starting from 12 September 2025, and there are certain exceptions with longer transition periods: • the obligation to design or manufacture a connected product/related service in a way that the product and related service data is accessible by default (“access by design”) will
become applicable in 32 months, meaning from 12 September 2026; and • the provisions on contractual terms and conditions in private sector data contracts will not be applicable until 12 September 2027 in relation to contracts concluded on or before 12 September 2024, provided that the contract in question is of indefinite duration or is due to expire at least ten years after 11 January 2024. The Data Act aims to remove barriers to access - ing data for both consumers and businesses in a context where the volume of data generated by humans and machines is increasing expo - nentially. This translates into various specific objectives: • empowering users of connected products with respect to the access and use of data; • promoting data sharing among businesses for commercial purposes or to foster more innovation; • introducing new mechanisms for data reuse by public sector organisations in exceptional circumstances; • ensuring greater fluidity in the cloud com - puting and edge computing markets and increasing trust in these services; and • establishing a framework to promote data interoperability. As the Data Act aims to regulate the use of data, and since such data has become omnipresent in contemporary society, the impact of the Data Act cannot be underestimated. Key obligations relate to, among other things: • access to data from connected devices; • the scope of data to be shared under the Data Act;
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