Data Strategy Briefing — September 12, 2025
Member States must notify the European Commission of their Data Act penalty regimes by 12 September 2025 under Article 40, so compliance leaders need visibility into national enforcement measures and escalation thresholds before they take effect.
Executive briefing: Article 40 of the EU Data Act requires every Member State to communicate the penalties and enforcement measures it will use for infringements by 12 September 2025. Organisations now need a single view of those notifications so that data sharing, switching, and public-sector access workflows can reflect each jurisdiction’s sanction ladders and supervisory escalation patterns.
Key governance checkpoints
- Penalty register tracking. Confirm that regulatory affairs teams monitor the Commission’s public register of national penalty measures as Article 40(2) updates arrive.
- Cross-border alignment. Map penalty severities against your current Data Act risk taxonomy so business units operating in multiple Member States can see which authorities prioritise unfair contractual terms, switching barriers, or refusals to supply data.
- Board briefings. Prepare governance summaries that link Article 40 penalty criteria to your control owners, highlighting how severity is tied to infringement duration, intent, and cooperation.
Operational priorities
- Escalation playbooks. Update incident and dispute runbooks so legal, policy, and product teams know when to involve national authorities once penalty regimes are in force.
- Contract controls. Re-baseline data access and cloud contracts against Member State expectations on reasonable compensation and trade-secret safeguards to minimise exposure to unfairness findings.
- Training cadences. Launch targeted enablement that walks through penalty exemplars for data intermediation, connected products, and data processing services.
Enablement moves
- Publish a living register that ties each national notification to accountable executives, remediation status, and audit evidence.
- Simulate supervisory reviews using Article 40’s proportionality criteria so leadership can practice explaining control coverage.
Sources
Zeph Tech synthesises Data Act penalty notifications, jurisdictional escalation triggers, and readiness drills for cross-border data programmes.