Abstract

Over the last decade, the European institutions have adopted several hard and soft law instruments to achieve the free flow of data within the single market – a fundamental factor in the promotion of a European artificial intelligence. In this context, the recent adoption of Regulation 2018/1807 on the free flow of non-personal data constitutes a necessary and logical step towards the establishment of comprehensive, complete and predictable legal rules for the processing of data and for strengthening the competitiveness of the Eu industry. However, in an attempt to introduce certainty, the European institutions seem to have actually created an increasingly complex regulatory framework, which lacks coordination among the various instruments and policies and risks jeopardizing the actual functioning in practice of this new order. This paper analyses how Regulation 2018/1807 fits into the regulatory framework on the free flow of data. In order to do so, this paper identifies the effective scope of the Regulation and offers an initial assessment of both its effectiveness in contributing to the free movement of data as well as the effectiveness of the overall regulatory framework on the free flow of data.