---
type: Right
title: "Take-it-or-leave-it data clauses can't bind you."
description: "Unfair terms imposed unilaterally about your data are void — old contracts get caught too."
tags: ["right", "eu-data-act"]
instrument: eu-data-act
articles: [13, 8, 9]
applies_from: 2025-09-12
attaches_to: ["cloud"]
pairs_with: []
legal_review: none
# Dated phases, for the rulebook's time axis. Every date is one of the
# Act's milestones; verify checks it.
phases:
  - { date: 2025-09-12, what: "Applies to contracts concluded from this date" }
  - { date: 2027-09-12, what: "Reaches qualifying older contracts" }
generated: { by: claude-code/opus-5.5, at: "2026-10-09T00:00:00Z" }
status: draft
sources:
  - id: eli
    resource: "https://eur-lex.europa.eu/eli/reg/2023/2854/oj/eng"
    title: "Regulation (EU) 2023/2854"
  - id: prototype
    resource: "https://github.com/DavidJCrawford/stewardship-explorer/blob/main/src/data/rights.json"
    title: "stewardship-explorer rights.json"
---

# The right

**Take-it-or-leave-it data clauses can't bind you.** Unfair terms imposed unilaterally about your data are void — old contracts get caught too.

The fine print stops being a moat. Unfair unilateral clauses on data access and use don't bind, and from September 2027 the protection reaches qualifying contracts signed before the Act applied.[^eli]

# The law behind it

[Article 13](/law/eu-data-act/articles/article-13.md), [Article 8](/law/eu-data-act/articles/article-08.md), [Article 9](/law/eu-data-act/articles/article-09.md). Applies from 2025-09-12.

# Where it lives in the building

[cloud](/building/components/cloud.md)

# The wider rulebook

None. This right stands alone.

[^eli]: Regulation (EU) 2023/2854