On 12 January 2027 the EU Data Act bans every switching charge for SaaS customers who leave. The export and exit duties behind it have applied since 12 September 2025, so the date removes a fee, not the work. We'd plan one small export-and-exit build now, with a named engineer as owner, instead of a January scramble.
Is your SaaS covered, and what is the January date for?
Probably, if you sell to customers in the EU. The Commission's FAQ (version 1.4) says the switching rules in Chapter VI apply to all SaaS types that fit the Act's definition of a data processing service: on demand, elastic, provided to a customer. The Act reaches providers wherever they're established, so a US or UK company with EU customers is covered if its service meets the definition.
Counsel decides three things: whether your product is in scope, whether early termination penalties survive, and how the rules treat contracts signed before September 2025. Bring them the product description, the contract template and the customer list.
The January date is about your price list, and step 5 below covers it.
Which services are out?
Two carve-outs in Article 31. Custom-built services, where most main features were built for one customer and the product isn't sold at broad commercial scale, skip a few provisions, including the ones on switching charges and standards compatibility. Non-production versions provided for testing and evaluation for a limited period skip the chapter. The Commission's FAQ says the other provisions still apply to custom-built services, and you have to tell prospective customers which obligations you're relying on not to owe.
What happens when a customer asks to leave?
Here's an invented example. Ledgerly is a 12-person B2B invoicing SaaS with 400 EU customers on annual contracts. A logistics firm gives notice that it's moving to a competitor. Article 25 sets the clock:
| Step | Statutory period | What Ledgerly owes |
|---|---|---|
| Notice | Up to 2 months | Service runs as normal |
| Transition | Up to 30 calendar days | Assist, keep service running, keep security |
| Retrieval | At least 30 calendar days | Customer pulls its data |
| Erasure | After retrieval | Delete exportable data and digital assets |
The contract sets the notice period, but it can't exceed two months. With the maximum notice, the 30-day transition and the minimum retrieval period, the path is about four months from notice to erasure. During transition you also have to tell the customer about known continuity risks.
If a full export can't be done in 30 days, Ledgerly has 14 working days from the request to say so, justify it and propose an alternative period of up to seven months. The customer can extend once. The Commission's FAQ says "14 days"; the regulation says 14 working days, and that's the text to plan to.
Today, Ledgerly's export is a support ticket and an engineer running SQL against production. Run that process for the logistics firm and the 30 days start slipping on day one.
How to build export and exit before the deadline
1. Inventory what you'd hand back
List two things. Exportable data is what the customer put in and what the product produced, plus metadata generated by their use. Digital assets are things the customer has the right to use, and the Commission's FAQ counts configuration, access and rights settings, and applications.
For Ledgerly that's invoices, customer records, templates, user roles, and API key configuration. You hand back the data and settings, not a rebuilt service in the new vendor's environment.
Nobody publishes what the build costs. Count the tables and objects per customer, then ask the engineer who owns the data layer to estimate the work against your schema. That figure is your budget.
Done when the category list is exhaustive enough to paste into the contract.
2. Build an export a customer or new vendor can call
Article 30(2) means your export API or format has to be available to every customer and to the destination provider on the same terms, free of charge, and documented well enough to write software against. Where no EU standard format exists yet, a customer can ask for everything in a structured, commonly used, machine-readable format.
You don't have to invent new technology, hand over trade secrets or IP, or weaken your security to do it. Scope the export to the data and assets from step 1.
If the export touches personal data, read what a data processing agreement must say about returning and deleting data. If a contractor builds it, see GDPR access rules when a contractor touches production data and what to put in a software agreement with an outside build team.
Done when a customer admin can pull a full export without opening a ticket. That's our bar; the Act doesn't require self-serve.
3. Publish a register of formats
Article 26 asks for information on your switching procedures and known limits, and an up-to-date online register of the data structures, formats and standards your export uses. A public docs page does the job.
Done when the page is live and the contract points to it.
4. Write the exit runbook and name one owner
Decide who receives the switching request, who runs the transition, who sends the "unfeasible" notice, and who deletes after retrieval. One engineer owns the runbook; legal and support are named in it, not substituted for it.
Done when a dry run with a test tenant finishes inside the transition period.
5. Clean up the price list
From 12 January 2027 no switching charge is allowed, egress included, so remove any line item that applies to leaving. Since January 2024 they've been capped at your directly linked costs, so keep any that remain at or under that until then. Publish your standard fees, early termination penalties and any reduced switching charge before the customer signs, and say publicly where a switch is highly complex.
One exception: a customer who runs your service in parallel with another provider can still be charged egress at cost. For everyone else, the egress your cloud bills you for their exports is yours to absorb, so ask finance to price it.
Done when the price list and contract template show no charge for leaving.
What changes in the contract?
Article 25(1) wants the terms in writing and available in storable form before signing. The table lists what the contract has to contain.
| Clause | Article |
|---|---|
| Right to switch, move on-premises, or erase | 25(3) |
| Maximum notice period | 25(2)(d) |
| Maximum transition period | 25(2)(a) |
| Exhaustive data and asset categories | 25(2)(e) |
| Listed trade-secret exemptions | 25(2)(f) |
| Retrieval period | 25(2)(g) |
| Erasure after retrieval | 25(2)(h) |
| Switching charges | 25(2)(i) (Art 29) |
Hand the table to counsel with your current terms and ask for the gaps. Trade-secret exemptions have to be listed and can't be used to delay switching. Member States set penalties for breaches, so there's no EU-wide fine to plan around.
Addleshaw Goddard's reading, from October 2025, is that the two-month notice has a similar effect to a right to end a fixed term for convenience, that full-remaining-value early termination fees are risky, and that the rules reach contracts signed before 12 September 2025. In practice, review your fixed-term clauses on the assumption that a customer can leave mid-term, and look again at any termination fee that charges the full remaining contract value.
Could the rules change before January?
The Commission proposed amendments in its Digital Omnibus package (COM(2025) 837, 19 November 2025). Greenberg Traurig's July 2026 summary of the Council's compromise text says it would exempt custom-made services and SME and small mid-cap providers of non-infrastructure services for contracts concluded on or before 12 September 2025, and would expressly allow proportionate early termination penalties. It leaves the ban on switching charges in place. It's a negotiating position, not law. Plan to the law as it stands.
What this means for your January 2027 plan
Our take: treat 12 January 2027 as the date your pricing is clean, and use it to close the gaps that are already due.
This month, if you're in scope:
- Put one engineer in charge of steps 1 to 4 and give them the dry run as the goal.
- Book the counsel hour for the three questions above.
- Ask finance to check the price list and contract template for exit and egress line items, and to price the cost of your own exports.
One owner with a dry-run date is a small project. A January scramble is a bigger one, because the export duty has been live for over a year.
For the counsel hour, our EU contracting and compliance guides cover the contract and data processing agreement questions that come up next.
FAQ
Does the EU Data Act apply to SaaS?
The Commission's FAQ says the switching rules apply to all SaaS types that meet the definition of a data processing service, wherever the provider is based, if it serves customers in the EU. Custom-built services and non-production testing versions have carve-outs. Whether your product qualifies is a question for counsel.
When do switching charges end under the EU Data Act?
On 12 January 2027 providers can't charge customers anything for switching, egress included. Until then, reduced charges are allowed, capped at the provider's directly linked costs. Parallel use of two providers can still carry egress charges at cost.
How long does a SaaS have to let a customer switch?
The contract can set a notice period of up to two months. Then comes a transition of up to 30 calendar days, and at least 30 calendar days for the customer to retrieve data. If transition is technically unfeasible, the provider has 14 working days to say so and can propose a period of up to seven months.
Can a SaaS still charge early termination penalties?
The Act requires you to disclose them before signing. Addleshaw Goddard reads full-remaining-value penalties as risky because they discourage switching. Per Greenberg Traurig, the Council's compromise text on the Digital Omnibus would expressly allow proportionate ones. It's a negotiating position, not law.
What data must a SaaS let customers export?
Exportable data, meaning input and output data and metadata generated by the customer's use, plus digital assets the customer has a right to use. The Commission's FAQ counts configuration, access and rights settings, and applications. The format is structured, commonly used and machine-readable. You don't have to disclose trade secrets or IP.
Does the Data Act apply to contracts signed before September 2025?
Addleshaw Goddard reads it as reaching them. Greenberg Traurig says the Council's compromise text on the Digital Omnibus would change that for custom-made services and for SME and small mid-cap providers of non-infrastructure services. It isn't law, so plan to the current text.