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Chapter III – Conditions for re-use (Art. 5-10)

Art. 5 Open Data Directive - Available formats arrow_right_alt

Art. 6 Open Data Directive - Principles governing charging arrow_right_alt

  1. The re-use of documents shall be free of charge.

However, the recovery of the marginal costs incurred for the reproduction, provision and dissemination of documents as well as for anonymisation of personal data and measures taken to protect commercially confidential information may be allowed.

  1. By way of exception, paragraph 1 shall not apply to the following:
    1. public sector bodies that are required to generate revenue to cover a substantial part of their costs relating to the performance of their public tasks;
    2. libraries, including university libraries, museums and archives;
    3. public undertakings.
  2. Member States shall publish online a list of the public sector bodies referred to in point (a) of paragraph 2.
  3. In the cases referred to in points (a) and (c) of paragraph 2, the total charges shall be calculated in accordance with objective, transparent and verifiable criteria. Such criteria shall be laid down by Member States.

The total income from supplying and allowing the re-use of documents over the appropriate accounting period shall not exceed the cost of their collection, production, reproduction, dissemination and data storage, together with a reasonable return on investment, and — where applicable — the anonymisation of personal data and measures taken to protect commercially confidential information.

Charges shall be calculated in accordance with the applicable accounting principles.

  1. Where charges are made by the public sector bodies referred to in point (b) of paragraph 2, the total income from supplying and allowing the re-use of documents over the appropriate accounting period shall not exceed the cost of collection, production, reproduction, dissemination, data storage, preservation and rights clearance and, where applicable, the anonymisation of personal data and measures taken to protect commercially confidential information, together with a reasonable return on investment.

Charges shall be calculated in accordance with the accounting principles applicable to the public sector bodies involved.

  1. The re-use of the following shall be free of charge for the user:
    1. subject to Article 14(3), (4) and (5), the high-value datasets, as listed in accordance with paragraph 1 of that Article;
    2. research data referred to in point (c) of Article 1(1).
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  • 40

Recital 36

Charges for the re-use of documents constitute an important market entry barrier for start-ups and SMEs. Documents should therefore be made available for re-use free of charge and, where charges are necessary, they should in principle be limited to the marginal costs. Where public sector bodies carry out a particularly extensive search for requested information or extremely costly modifications of the format of requested information, either voluntarily or as required under national law, marginal costs may cover the costs associated with such activities. In exceptional cases, the necessity of not hindering the normal running of public sector bodies that are required to generate revenue to cover a substantial part of their costs relating to the performance of their public tasks should be taken into consideration. This also applies where a public sector body has made data available as open data but is obliged to generate revenue to cover a substantial part of their costs relating to the performance of other public tasks. The role of public undertakings in a competitive economic environment should also be acknowledged. In such cases, public sector bodies and public undertakings should therefore be able to charge above marginal costs. Those charges should be set according to objective, transparent and verifiable criteria and the total income from supplying and allowing re-use of documents should not exceed the cost of collection and production, including purchasing from third parties, reproduction, maintenance, storage and dissemination, together with a reasonable return on investment. Where applicable, it should also be possible to include in the eligible cost the costs of anonymisation of personal data and costs of measures taken to protect the confidentiality of data. Member States may require public sector bodies and public undertakings to disclose those costs. The requirement to generate revenue to cover a substantial part of the public sector bodies’ costs relating to the performance of their public tasks or the scope of the services of general interest entrusted with public undertakings does not have to be a legal requirement and may stem, for example, from administrative practices in Member States. Such a requirement should be regularly reviewed by the Member States.

Recital 37

The return on investment can be understood as a percentage, in addition to marginal costs, allowing for the recovery of the cost of capital and the inclusion of a real rate of return. As the cost of capital is closely linked to credit institutions’ interest rates, which are themselves based on the fixed rate of the European Central Bank (ECB) on main refinancing operations, the reasonable return on investment should not be more than 5 % above the ECB’s fixed interest rate.

Recital 38

Libraries, including university libraries, museums and archives should be able to charge above marginal costs in order not to hinder their normal running. In the case of such public sector bodies, the total income from supplying and allowing re-use of documents over the appropriate accounting period should not exceed the cost of collection, production, reproduction, dissemination, preservation and rights clearance, together with a reasonable return on investment. Where applicable, the costs of anonymisation of personal data or of commercially sensitive information should also be included in the eligible cost. For the purpose of libraries, including university libraries, museums and archives, and bearing in mind their particularities, the prices charged by the private sector for the re-use of identical or similar documents could be considered when calculating a reasonable return on investment.

Recital 39

The upper limits for charges set in this Directive are without prejudice to the right of Member States to apply lower charges or no charges at all.

Recital 40

Member States should lay down the criteria for charging above marginal costs. For example, they should be able to lay down such criteria in national rules or to designate an appropriate body or appropriate bodies, other than the public sector body itself, competent to lay down such criteria. That body should be organised in accordance with the constitutional and legal systems of the Member States. It could be an existing body with budgetary executive powers and under political responsibility.

Art. 7 Open Data Directive - Transparency arrow_right_alt

Art. 8 Open Data Directive - Standard licences arrow_right_alt

Art. 9 Open Data Directive - Practical arrangements arrow_right_alt

Art. 10 Open Data Directive - Research data arrow_right_alt