plac­ing on the mar­ket

“Placing on the market” means the first making available of a connected product on the Union market. Making available means the permanent or temporary transfer or granting of property and usage rights, in particular through sales, rental or leasing contracts. If, for example, a manufacturer sells or rents out a connected product to a user in the European Union for the first time after the manufacturing stage, the product is considered as having been placed on the market in the European Union.

• A connected product can be placed on the market only once.
• The concept of placing on the market refers to each individual product, not to a type of product.
• In the case of connected products that have been placed on the market in the European Union but are used in third countries, both the data generated in Europe and the data generated outside Europe must be made available. However, only users established in the European Union may request provision of the data. In the case of an aircraft belonging to a European airline, for instance, the data generated by the aircraft in third countries outside the EU must also be made available.
• The rules do not cover products that have been bought in a third country and imported into the European Union or products that have been produced in the European Union for export and placed on the market outside the European Union. A smartwatch bought in the US and brought to the European Union afterwards, for example, is therefore considered as having been placed on the market in the US.