The EU Data Act's Cloud Switching Rules, Explained

Chapter VI of the Data Act exists because the EU concluded that cloud lock-in is a market failure. The rules are blunt, and they are aimed at contracts exactly like the one your SaaS probably uses.

Who is covered

Providers of data processing services to EU customers. The term is broad and is generally read to include IaaS, PaaS and SaaS. Size does not exempt you; there is no small-provider carve-out for the core switching rights.

The customer's exit rights

When a customer decides to switch to another provider (or to on-premises infrastructure), the Data Act requires that your contract allow:

• initiation of switching with a maximum notice period of two months,
• a transition period of up to 30 days (extendable only where technically unfeasible, with justification),
• retrieval of the customer's exportable data and digital assets in a structured, commonly used, machine-readable format,
• reasonable assistance from you during the move,
• after switching, erasure of the customer's remaining data.

A 12-month lock-in with an auto-renewing term and no export path is not a negotiating position under this regime, the mandatory terms override.

The money part: switching charges

Since September 2025, switching charges have been limited to costs you actually incur. From 12 January 2027, the remaining allowance closes and switching charges, including data egress fees charged in the context of switching, are expected to be withdrawn entirely. Pricing pages and enterprise quotes that monetise exit need to be rethought before that date.

Information and transparency duties

You must make information about switching procedures, formats, known restrictions and where data is stored available to customers, typically in the contract and in public documentation. An export documentation page is the cleanest way to satisfy this, and it doubles as a sales asset: enterprise buyers read exit terms before they sign.

What compliance actually looks like

1. A switching addendum in your standard terms covering notice, transition, assistance, export and erasure.
2. A working export: an endpoint, a bulk download, or a documented process that produces machine-readable output.
3. A public documentation page describing the process.
4. Pricing reviewed for egress and exit fees against the 2027 date.

Our free readiness assessment checks all four in the switching section and shows you which are missing; the paid pack includes a ready-to-adapt switching addendum template.