Scope

The Open Data Directive (ODD) primarily applies to public sector bodies. The ODD obligates member states to implement rules governing the accessibility and re-use of public sector data. Such data includes documents held by public sector bodies and undertakings (texts, databases, audio files and film fragments, among others, irrespective of the medium in which they are held). However, as opposed to the Data Governance Act, the directive does not apply to “protected data”, such as documents where third parties hold intellectual property rights and privacy-restricted data.

Relevance

The ODD aims to fuel innovation, stimulate economic growth and create new business opportunities based on re-use of valuable public sector information. The ODD focuses on removing market entry barriers for small and medium sized enterprises, for instance by limiting public-private arrangements in favour of large companies which limits the number of potential re-users of data.
The ODD is proposed implemented in Norway through a new “Data Sharing Act”. A material part of the directive is already implemented in Norway through the Norwegian Public Information Act, but rules governing re-use of public data is proposed moved from the NPI to the Data Sharing Act. The Data Sharing Act will also amend the current legal landscape in Norway, for instance through restricting public bodies’ ability to charge for making data available, in particular high value data sets.

Key obligations

Public-sector bodies are required to implement technical means for processing information requests and making relevant documents available within reasonable time. Dynamic data (digital data that are often or continuously updated to be relevant) shall, when available, be accessible through a solution that provides access to the data continuously, and when relevant, through bulk-downloading (chapter 2 of the Data Sharing Act).

Chapter 3 of the Data Sharing Act limits public sector bodies’ ability to charge for re-use of data, and limits charges for making data available to the marginal costs associated with making the data available. There is also a prohibition on granting exclusive rights to data or otherwise discriminating in the provision of access to data.

The ODD further introduces so-called “high value data sets” (datasets whose re-use is associated with significant benefits for society, the environment, and the economy). This for instance covers geographical data, environmental data, meteorological data, companies register and ownership data, and mobility data (such as traffic data and public transport schedules). These datasets shall as a main rule be made available for re-use free of charge, in machine-readable format, and through APIs or bulk download where relevant.