EU Data Act removes key data barrier to Pay-per-Use equipment finance

A significant new requirement under the EU Data Act came into effect on 12 September 2026, potentially removing one of the longstanding barriers to usage-based equipment finance: access to reliable machine data.

The EU Data Act has applied generally since 12 September 2025, giving businesses and consumers greater rights over data generated through their use of connected products, including industrial machinery.

However, a further obligation under Article 3(1) now applies to connected products and related services placed on the market after 12 September 2026.

Under the requirement, connected products must be designed and manufactured so that product and related-service data – together with the metadata needed to interpret it – are by default easily and securely accessible to the user, free of charge, in a comprehensive, structured, commonly used and machine-readable format. Where relevant and technically feasible, that data must also be directly accessible to the user.

The change could have particular significance for equipment finance providers looking to develop Pay-per-Use and other usage-based financing models.

From negotiated access to a user right

Traditionally, one of the challenges surrounding Pay-per-Use finance has been relatively straightforward to describe but difficult to overcome: who can access the data coming from the machine?

A usage-based finance agreement might calculate payments according to the number of hours a machine operates, the number of components it produces or another measurable output. To make that work effectively, the finance provider needs reliable and sufficiently timely operational data.

Historically, obtaining that information could require integrations and commercial arrangements with individual equipment manufacturers. Different OEMs could have different systems, interfaces and policies around access, making the creation of a scalable multi-manufacturer financing proposition considerably more complicated.

The Data Act changes the underlying position.

Rather than giving the equipment manufacturer exclusive control over access to machine-generated data, the legislation gives the user of the connected product rights to access and use in-scope data and to request that it is made available to a third party of its choice.

Importantly for equipment finance, a “user” under the legislation can be a person or business that owns a connected product or has temporary contractual rights to use it, including through a rental or lease arrangement.

For equipment already in use, where data cannot be accessed directly, the data holder must make “readily available data” accessible to the user on request. Users can also ask the data holder to make that data available to a third party.

Why 12 September 2026 matters

The latest stage of the regulation goes further by influencing how new connected equipment itself is designed.

For connected products placed on the market after 12 September 2026, the Article 3(1) requirements mean accessibility can no longer simply be treated as an aftermarket consideration.

Machines must be designed around the principle that relevant product data is accessible by default.

That potentially changes the starting point for lenders, lessors and technology providers developing data-driven finance products. Instead of machine data being something that first has to be unlocked through a bilateral negotiation with an OEM, access rights increasingly sit with the customer using the equipment.

It does not mean that every piece of data generated by a machine automatically becomes available. The legislation primarily covers raw and pre-processed data that falls within its scope, while inferred or derived data can sit outside it. There are also provisions covering areas including trade secrets, security and data protection.

Nor does the legislation eliminate the technical work required to connect different machines and turn their data into information capable of supporting billing, risk management and finance decisions.

What it changes is the regulatory foundation on which those connections can be built.

A boost for Pay-per-Use?

For Pay-per-Use equipment finance, that distinction could prove important.

Rather than financing a machine through repayments based primarily on its acquisition cost and an agreed term, Pay-per-Use models can align payments more closely with the economic output generated by the asset.

A manufacturer might pay according to machine hours, cycles, components produced or another agreed measure of utilisation.

For the financier, however, such a model depends on having confidence in the underlying usage information. If every new OEM relationship requires a separate negotiation over whether that information can be accessed, the complexity can quickly undermine the scalability of the proposition.

“Linxfour applauds the principles established in the EU Data Act. It does for machine IoT data what PSD2 did for payment account data: it puts the customer, not the incumbent, in control.

“The company operating a machine also controls its operational data and with the EU Data Act that access is now legally provided for. This removes a bottleneck for usage-based financing. Pay-per-Use depends on reliable access to usage data, which until now meant negotiating access with every manufacturer.

“Data sovereignty for equipment owners is a structural tailwind for how equipment will be financed.”

The Data Act does not itself create a common Pay-per-Use financing infrastructure, nor does it require every manufacturer to provide identical data through an identical interface. But it does significantly strengthen users’ ability to access data generated through their use of connected equipment and to make that data available to third parties.

For equipment placed on the market after 12 September 2026, data accessibility must now be considered at the design stage. For existing connected equipment, users have already had rights since September 2025 to request readily available data and, subject to the Data Act’s provisions, have it supplied to a third party of their choosing.

New opportunities for equipment finance

The implications potentially extend beyond simply calculating a monthly Pay-per-Use invoice.

Greater access to operational data could support finance providers in monitoring utilisation, understanding asset performance, developing more dynamic servicing arrangements and potentially improving their understanding of residual values and asset condition.

It could also make it easier for independent technology businesses to sit between the equipment operator, OEM and finance provider, aggregating machine information from multiple sources and translating it into standardised data that can be used within financing platforms.

For equipment finance, the significance may be particularly strong where the financing proposition itself depends upon what an asset actually does after it has been delivered.

Pay-per-Use has long promised to bring finance payments closer to the productive value of an asset. Until now, however, access to the machine data required to make that model work at scale has been one of the practical obstacles.

From 12 September 2026, newly placed connected equipment in Europe has to be designed with data accessibility built in.

That does not solve every technical or commercial challenge surrounding usage-based finance. But it removes an important gatekeeper and could make the infrastructure required for scalable Pay-per-Use finance considerably easier to build.