Competition, standards, and EU data spaces

The 2023 Proposal for a Financial Data Access Regulation (FIDA) aims to significantly enhance competition in the financial services sector by extending data portability rights far beyond the scope initially established by the Second Payment Services Directive (PSD2). Under FIDA, consumers gain extensive rights to authorize third-party access to previously siloed financial data, thereby promoting competition among incumbent institutions and new entrants. Yet, FIDA's ambition hinges on structured collaboration among competitors-raising significant competition law concerns under Article 101 TFEU. FIDA explicitly recognizes this risk. Its governance framework, particularly Article 10, clearly incorporates key principles of EU competition law, closely aligning financial data sharing schemes with the European Commission's Guidelines on the applicability of Article 101 to horizontal cooperation agreements. However, FIDA does not directly regulate or prescribe the substance of the standards themselves. This raises an important question: can a governance framework alone, without mandatory substantive standards, effectively prevent competition risks in the schemes? This article argues that the absence of prescribed substantive standards under FIDA could lead to competition issues similar to those observed under PSD2, where fragmented technical interfaces caused interoperability failures, insufficient incentives, discouraged investment in data-sharing infrastructure, and market trust declined, thereby limiting consumer uptake. This risk holds implications beyond financial services, serving as an important reference point for the broader EU agenda on sectoral data spaces and open data initiatives, where similar governance challenges and competition risks are likely to emerge.