Article 3

2a. In Article 3, paragraph 1 is amended as follows:

1. Connected products shall be designed and manufactured, and related services shall be designed and provided, in such a manner that product data and related service data, including the relevant metadata necessary to interpret and use those data, are, by default, easily, securely, free of charge, in a comprehensive, structured, commonly used and machine-readable format, and, where relevant and technically feasible, directly accessible to the user. Where technically feasible, such access shall be available as local network access, in real time, without the data first being transmitted to, or made contingent upon the availability of, a server or cloud infrastructure operated by the manufacturer, the data holder, or a third party. The obligation shall not be considered fulfilled by an interface that transmits data to such infrastructure before returning it to the user."

Justification

This addition, which is to be read in conjunction with definition 61a and the following amendment, closes the existing loophole by which ‘directly accessible’ often means that a user is forced to install an app that is connected to the vendor’s cloud. The text ensures that the obligations remain feasible as it does not create absolute obligations where local access is genuinely not possible.