Just about all companies, public bodies, educational institutions, hospitals, etc... use the cloud. After all, storing data and running software applications in the cloud offers more flexibility and cyber security. But the imbalance in relations between cloud providers and their business customers leads to unfair practices.

New principles for cloud transition will apply immediately to all contracts from September 2025

Business users of IT have little or no room for negotiation, leading to a de facto ‘vendor lock-in’. Some examples of the problems:

• Cloud providers can unilaterally change subscription prices or the basis on which those prices are calculated. This makes it very difficult, or even impossible, to predict future costs.
• Those who want to switch providers face difficulties in getting their data back, e.g. because the provider only provides the data in a specific format it owns.
• Unreasonable additional costs are often charged to recover company data from the cloud at the end of the contract.

Clear, unambiguous and fair contracts are necessary
Business users deserve a better cloud environment. The imbalance in relationships between cloud providers and their business customers leads to unfair practices, sister associations conclude. To counter vendor lock-in, the associations of CIOs and digital leaders jointly launched a memorandum with 11 principles to achieve better cloud contracts three years ago.

‘Cloud users need clear, unambiguous and fair contractual terms. Today, for example, less than 5% of cloud contracts have proper switching and exit clauses. Most companies go to the cloud and have no idea how to get their data back, how long it might take and how much it might cost,' notes Claude Rapoport, Chairman of Beltug and member of the European Expert Group working on standard clauses for cloud contracts at the request of the European Commission.

Data Act lays down new principles
From September, this will change. That is when the European Data Act removes a number of obstacles for switching cloud providers:

• The provider shall allow the customer to switch within a transition period of up to 30 days. If this is not possible, the provider must explain why it is not technically feasible, and propose another transition period of up to 7 months.
• The provider provides reasonable assistance in this regard.
• The cost of recovering business data in cloud applications must not exceed the actual cost. After January 12, 2027, such costs will be completely eliminated.

‘Control over data is becoming increasingly important, and that includes data in the cloud. From September, a number of barriers will be removed to recover company data from the cloud. The principles apply immediately to all contracts, including existing ones,’ states Ioana Mazilescu, European Commission, Chair of the Expert Group B2B Data Sharing and Cloud Computing.

Standard clauses for cloud contracts
In addition, the European Commission is also coming up with standard clauses for cloud contracts. These are currently being prepared by an expert group. They will be published in the summer. The clauses are not mandatory, but will be a reference for balanced clauses, in line with the Data Act.

We see this development as a great example of ‘practical regulation’ - which fits into the current European exercise to make implementing legislation feasible and more realistic for companies.

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