JRC Digital Economy Working Paper 2017-01 The economics of ownership, access and trade in digital data Nestor Duch-Brown Bertin Martens Frank Mueller-Langer 2017 This publication is a Working Paper by the Joint Research Centre, the European Commission’s in-house science service. It aims to provide evidence-based scientific support to the European policy-making process. The scientific output expressed does not imply a policy position of the European Commission. Neither the European Commission nor any person acting on behalf of the Commission is responsible for the use which might be made of this publication. Contact information European Commission, Joint Research Centre Address: Edificio Expo. c/Inca Garcilaso, 3. 41092 Seville (Spain) E-mail:
[email protected] Tel.: +34 954488318 JRC Science Hub https://ec.europa.eu/jrc JRC104756 ISSN 1831-9408 (online) Seville, Spain: European Commission, 2017 © European Union, 2017 Reproduction is authorised provided the source is acknowledged. How to cite: Nestor Duch-Brown, Bertin Martens and Frank Mueller-Langer, The economics of ownership, access and trade in digital data; Digital Economy Working Paper 2017-01; JRC Technical Reports. All images © European Union 2017 Table of Contents 1. Introduction………………………………………………………………………………………………………..4 2. Defining data and their economic properties ............................................. 6 2.1. What are data, information and communication? ....................................... 6 2.2. Economies of scope in data analytics ....................................................... 8 2.3. Interoperability and barriers to access ................................................... 10 3. The legal framework for data ownership and access ................................. 12 3.1. Legal ownership rights in data .............................................................. 12 3.2. Legal aspects of competition in data markets .......................................... 19 4. The economics of data ownership .........................................................