To address complex societal challenges like the climate crisis or pandemics, governments need to make evidence-based decisions based on the best available data. However, data needed to make policy decisions are no longer solely in the domain of the public sector, but increasingly also in the hands of the private sector. As part of its Data Strategy, the European Union (EU) has recently adopted the Data Act, which includes provisions to mandate business-to-government data sharing in situations of exceptional need. Some critics argue that the adopted text of the Data Act has made significant concessions to the interests of the private sector and that the initial text was much more ambitious. In this study, we aim to understand and explain the conflicting narrative framing of the public and private sectors on mandatory B2G data sharing for public interest. To answer our research question, we analyze the public and private narratives found in the public consultation on the Data Act using the method of discourse network analysis (DNA). We established a clear division into two coalitions which partly agreed on the problem, yet widely diverged on the solution. We highlight the difference found in the belief systems of the main coalitions and discuss them through the lens of institutional logics. Our findings showcase that the resulting legislation has aligned more with the policy preferences of the private-sector-dominated coalition favoring a “narrow” data access mandate.
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Susha et al. (2026) studied this question.