On this page · 9 sections
- What changes on 12 January 2027, and what already applies
- The switching process the Act sets out (Articles 23 to 31)
- What the ban covers, and what it does not
- What AWS, Microsoft Azure and Google Cloud offer today
- Worked example: a 300 TB exit from Azure West Europe
- India angle: Indian companies with EU customers
- Exit-plan checklist
- How eCorpIT can help
- References
Summary. From 12 January 2027, Article 29(1) of the EU Data Act (Regulation (EU) 2023/2854) bars cloud and other data processing providers from charging customers for switching, and the Act's definition of switching charges includes data egress. Until then, providers may charge only reduced fees capped at the costs directly linked to the switch. The rest of the switching chapter has applied since 12 September 2025: notice of at most two months, a 30-day transitional period (up to seven months if the provider justifies it within 14 working days), at least 30 days to retrieve data and an exhaustive list of exportable data in the contract. The ban leaves three bills alone: egress for serving your own users, egress for multi-cloud use in parallel (Article 34(2) allows at-cost charges with no end date), and standard fees or proportionate early termination penalties. AWS, Microsoft and Google already credit exit egress through support-led programmes with conditions, and each now has EU-specific terms or offers. The Council's Digital Omnibus mandate of 21 October 2026 does not move the date, and Parliament has no position yet. In our worked example, egress is 2.9% of a $638,685 exit. Plan the other 97%.
About this article. For CTOs, FinOps and procurement teams with EU cloud contracts, and Indian companies that buy cloud for EU workloads or sell SaaS to EU customers. Checked on 1 November 2026 against the Official Journal text of the Data Act, the Commission's explainer, the Council's Digital Omnibus mandate, the Parliament procedure file, and AWS, Microsoft and Google programme pages, contract terms and price lists. This is general information, not legal advice. Providers change terms and prices, so re-check before you commit; no vendor paid for inclusion. Researched with AI assistance and reviewed by our editorial team.
What changes on 12 January 2027, and what already applies
From 12 January 2027, Article 29(1) says providers of data processing services must not impose any switching charges on the customer for the switching process. Until then, Article 29(2) and (3) allow reduced charges that may not exceed the provider's own costs directly linked to that switch.
Article 2(36) defines switching charges to include data egress charges and to exclude standard service fees and early termination penalties. The Commission's explainer confirms that switching charges, egress included, go entirely on 12 January 2027.
The timeline below comes from Articles 29 and 50 of the Regulation, the Council's mandate and the Parliament procedure file.
| Date | What applies | Source |
|---|---|---|
| 11 January 2024 | Regulation in force; reduced, cost-capped switching charges allowed | Articles 29(2) and 50 |
| 12 September 2025 | The Act applies, including the Chapter VI switching rules (Articles 23 to 31) | Article 50 |
| 21 October 2026 | Council agrees its Digital Omnibus negotiating mandate; Parliament has not voted | Council document 14756/26 |
| 12 January 2027 | No switching charges of any kind, egress for switching included | Article 29(1) |
The same date ends extended support for Windows Server 2016. If the estate you plan to move still runs it, settle the version question before the move; our comparison of Windows Server 2016, 2025 and Azure Local sets out the options.
Does the Digital Omnibus change the date? Not on current evidence. The Commission proposed the Omnibus (COM(2025) 837) on 19 November 2025. Member State ambassadors in Coreper agreed the Council's negotiating mandate on 21 October 2026, after failed attempts earlier in the month. On 1 November 2026 the Parliament procedure file still showed the joint ITRE and LIBE committees awaiting a decision, so trilogues have not started.
The Council text adds two narrow exemptions for contracts concluded on or before 12 September 2025 (non-infrastructure services largely adapted to one customer, and non-infrastructure services from SMEs and small mid-caps), keeps Article 29 applying to both and voids contract terms that conflict with Article 29(1) to (3). It also expressly allows proportionate early termination penalties in fixed-term contracts, and it leaves the 12 January 2027 date alone. Greenberg Traurig's July 2026 analysis of an earlier Council compromise text read Article 29 the same way.
Enforcement sits with national authorities. Member States set effective, proportionate and dissuasive penalties under Article 40, and customers can complain to the competent authority under Article 38.
The switching process the Act sets out (Articles 23 to 31)
The charge ban is the headline, but Articles 23 to 31 also fix the timetable and the paperwork, and they apply now.
| Obligation on the provider | Article | What to check |
|---|---|---|
| Switching rights in a written contract, available before signing | 25(1) | You hold the current terms |
| Notice period of at most 2 months | 25(2)(d) | No longer notice clause |
| Transitional period of at most 30 calendar days, with service continuity and assistance | 25(2)(a) | Who does what in the 30 days |
| If unfeasible: notice within 14 working days, alternative period of up to 7 months | 25(4) | Process for long migrations |
| Customer may extend the transitional period once | 25(5) | How to request it |
| Exhaustive list of portable data, at minimum all exportable data | 25(2)(e) | Metadata, configs, logs |
| Exhaustive list of trade-secret exemptions, which must not impede or delay the switch | 25(2)(f) | What you must rebuild |
| Retrieval period of at least 30 days, then full erasure | 25(2)(g), (h) | Erasure confirmation |
| No pre-commercial, commercial, technical, contractual or organisational obstacles | 23 | Bundles tying services together |
| Jurisdiction and measures against unlawful foreign access published online and listed in contracts | 28 | URLs cited in the contract |
| Pre-contract disclosure of fees, penalties, reduced switching charges and hard-to-switch services | 29(4) to (6) | Provider's Data Act web page |
| IaaS: functional equivalence measures; others: free open interfaces; machine-readable export where no common standard exists | 30 | Export formats per service |
Two definitions decide what you can take. Exportable data (Article 2(38)) is the input and output data, including metadata, that your use of the service generates, minus the provider's or third parties' intellectual property and trade secrets. Functional equivalence (Article 2(37)) means a new service of the same type gives a materially comparable result for the same input on shared features. Infrastructure providers must take reasonable measures to help you get there, but no provider has to build new technology or hand over protected IP (Article 30(1) and (6)). It is a duty to help, not a promise that a proprietary managed service will run unchanged elsewhere. Managed AI and data services are where this bites; our comparison of a managed Bedrock knowledge base with self-managed RAG looks at that lock-in trade-off.
What the ban covers, and what it does not
Most confusion comes from treating every gigabyte that leaves a cloud as the same. The Act separates switching, in-parallel use and everything else; the table applies Articles 2(35), 2(36), 25, 29, 31 and 34.
| Situation | Is it switching under the Act? | What can be charged after 12 January 2027 |
|---|---|---|
| Moving all workloads from provider A to provider B or on-premises | Yes | No switching charges, egress included (Art. 29(1)) |
| Moving one service, such as object storage, while keeping others | Generally yes, as the Act frames switching per service; AWS's addendum calls this a Service Switch | No switching charges for that switch; follow the provider's process |
| Erasing your data at contract end instead of moving it | No; erasure is a contract option under Art. 25(2)(c)(ii) and 25(3) | The contract ends at the end of the notice period |
| Serving pages, files or API responses to your users | No | Normal internet egress rates |
| Running two clouds side by side and syncing data (multi-cloud, DR replica, analytics) | No: in-parallel use (Art. 34) | Egress only to pass on costs incurred, no margin (Art. 34(2)) |
| Standard service fees during the notice and transitional periods | Excluded from the definition | Normal fees |
| Leaving a fixed-term commitment early | Early termination penalty, excluded from the definition | Proportionate penalties as contracted |
| A mostly custom-built service not offered at broad commercial scale through the catalogue | Art. 29 disapplied by Art. 31(1) | As contracted |
| A non-production version for testing and evaluation for a limited period | Whole chapter disapplied by Art. 31(2) | As contracted |
The in-parallel rule matters more than most coverage admits. Article 34(2) lets providers charge egress for in-parallel use only to pass on the egress costs they incur, without exceeding them, and the text sets no end date. A database in one cloud and an application in another stays billable after January 2027, at cost at most. Our comparison of cloud egress fees across AWS, Azure, Google Cloud and Cloudflare R2 shows what those bills look like today.
Some lines are unsettled. Greenberg Traurig flags open questions on which switching-related charges may still be levied after the ban, when a provider's measures deliver functional equivalence, and whether resellers and many SaaS offerings count as data processing services at all.
What AWS, Microsoft Azure and Google Cloud offer today
Google launched free data transfer for customers leaving its cloud on 12 January 2024, and AWS followed on 5 March 2024; Microsoft runs a comparable credit for customers leaving Azure. All three have since added EU-specific terms or in-parallel offers. The conditions differ in ways that affect your plan.
AWS
AWS credits data transfer out to the internet when a customer moves all its data off AWS, or all its data off one service, across its eligible accounts; requests go through AWS Support. Every customer also gets 100 GB a month free. Since an 8 October 2026 update, eligible customers outside the EU have 180 days to finish the move.
EU customers use the AWS EU Data Act Addendum: a switching request at least two months before the planned start, a 30-day transitional period (up to seven months if AWS notifies unfeasibility within 14 business days) and one customer extension. It covers a complete switch or a service switch for payer accounts with an EU account country, and skipping the completion steps (the completion notice, then account closure or data deletion) can mean repaying switching credits. AWS's network FAQ adds that addendum-eligible customers may ask Support for reduced transfer rates for eligible use cases; it publishes neither the rate nor the use cases.
Microsoft Azure
Azure credits egress for customers leaving over the internet. You file a support request with your subscription or enrolment ID, start date and estimated volume; you get 60 days from the start date (longer if you include a migration timeline), must cancel all subscriptions, and can then claim an invoice-level credit for up to 60 days of egress. ExpressRoute, VPN, Front Door and Azure CDN transfer is excluded. UK-billed customers leaving UK data centres get 180 days and can exit single services, and partners run the request for customers who buy through them.
Microsoft's contract terms also cover the Act. The EU Data Act section of its Products and Services Data Protection Addendum (22 May 2026) applies to customers with an EEA billing address. It allows switching at no cost beyond the fees otherwise due, export for up to 90 days after the subscription ends, termination on 60 days' notice and reduced egress fees for switching and in-parallel use as the law provides. Previews are excluded.
For in-parallel use, Microsoft refunds egress down to cost for organisations billed in the EEA, EFTA or UK that keep customer data in those areas. The request lists each external endpoint's ASN and traffic share; it covers internet egress on the routing preference ISP path, the destination must belong to the same organisation, and CDN delivery is out of scope.
Google Cloud
Google credits data transfer when you migrate everything off a Google Cloud service. You file an Exit Notice; within 14 days a support agent is assigned and Google says whether it needs extra time. A 30-day Initiation Period follows, in which migration must start, then a Migration Period of at least 30 days. You file a Completion Notice within 180 days after that period ends, the agreement for the service ends at the first month end at least 30 days later, and the credit appears on the final invoice. Internet transfers and listed products only, with no partial moves within a service.
For in-parallel use, Data Transfer Essentials, launched on 10 September 2025 for EU and UK customers, bills qualifying intra-organisation traffic to other clouds at zero. You opt in per region and project and register destination IP ranges from recognised ASNs. Traffic serving end users is excluded, Google says the service is free for now, and there is no SLA.
The table below summarises these terms as published on 1 November 2026.
| Provider | Exit egress programme | Timeline and notice | Scope | In-parallel (Art. 34) offer | EU-specific terms |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| AWS | Free DTO credits via Support | EU: 2 months' notice, 30-day transition, up to 7 months; non-EU: 180 days | All eligible accounts or a whole service | Reduced rates on request for eligible use cases, not published | EU Data Act Addendum, EU account country |
| Microsoft Azure | Invoice-level egress credit via Support | 60 days from start date, extendable with a timeline; UK 180 days; DPA: 60 days' notice to terminate | Whole account (single services for UK only) | At-cost refund for EEA, EFTA and UK billing addresses | EU Data Act section of the Products and Services DPA, EEA billing address |
| Google Cloud | Credit on final invoice after Exit Notice | 14 days, then 30-day Initiation and 30-day-plus Migration Periods | A whole service | Data Transfer Essentials at zero charge, opt-in | Exit process on its exit page; erasure option for EEA billing addresses |
Worked example: a 300 TB exit from Azure West Europe
Assumptions (illustrative, replace with your own): an EU-billed SaaS company on Azure West Europe moves 300 TB (300,000 GB) of data to another provider in one billing month. Its Azure run rate is $60,000 a month. It holds a savings commitment of $25,000 a month with 12 months still to run after the planned cut-over. The migration takes three months and 20 person-months of engineering at an assumed fully loaded $10,000 per person-month.
1. Egress at list price. Azure's bandwidth page lists internet egress from Europe routed over the Microsoft Premium Global Network as free for the first 100 GB, then $0.087/GB for the next 10 TB, $0.083/GB for the next 40 TB, $0.07/GB for the next 100 TB and $0.05/GB for the next 350 TB, with 1 TB counted as 1,000 GB.
10,000 GB x $0.087 = $870.00
40,000 GB x $0.083 = $3,320.00
100,000 GB x $0.07 = $7,000.00
149,900 GB x $0.05 = $7,495.00
Total egress (list) = $18,685.00
Azure's Retail Prices API sets the same meters on 1,024 GB terabytes, which gives $18,773.38, or $88.38 more. For comparison, AWS's published tiers from Europe (Ireland) are $0.09, $0.085, $0.07 and $0.05 per GB above the free 100 GB, with boundaries at 10,240, 51,200 and 153,600 GB. The same 299,900 billable GB would cost $18,886.20: 10,240 x $0.09 + 40,960 x $0.085 + 102,400 x $0.07 + 146,300 x $0.05.
2. Dual running. Old environment at 100%, 100% and 50% over three months ($150,000); new one at 50%, 100% and 100% ($150,000). That is $300,000 against a $180,000 baseline: $120,000 extra.
3. Commitments. 12 x $25,000 = $300,000. The Data Act does not cancel commitments, and proportionate early termination penalties stay lawful.
4. Engineering. 20 person-months x $10,000 = $200,000 for data moves, re-platforming proprietary services, testing and cut-over.
| Cost line | Exit before 12 January 2027 | Exit after 12 January 2027 | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Egress, 300 TB | $18,685 list, credited under Azure's exit programme if you meet its conditions | $0 for a Data Act switch | Under the programme you pay first and claim the credit after cancelling subscriptions |
| Dual running | $120,000 | $120,000 | Standard fees, not covered by Article 29 |
| Remaining commitment | $300,000 exposure | $300,000 exposure | Negotiate, redeploy or time the exit to expiry |
| Engineering | $200,000 | $200,000 | Lower if you use portable services |
| Total | $638,685 at list | $620,000 | Egress is 2.9% of the list-price total |
The ban still matters: it turns a condition-heavy credit into a legal requirement on every provider in scope, including smaller clouds and SaaS vendors that never ran a waiver. But the biggest exit costs are commitment end dates, overlap months and proprietary services. Plan those now.
India angle: Indian companies with EU customers
The Data Act reaches Indian companies in two different roles, and each needs its own plan.
If you buy cloud
In practice, provider terms key off the contracting and billing entity. AWS's EU addendum needs an EU account country, Microsoft's DPA terms need an EEA billing address (EFTA and UK addresses also qualify for at-cost transfer), and Data Transfer Essentials is offered to EU and UK customers. An Indian parent billed in India relies instead on the global programmes (AWS's 180 days, Azure's 60 days, Google's exit process), which are voluntary and can change. Check which entity holds the contract for EU workloads, and if you buy Azure through a CSP partner, bring the partner into the exit plan.
If you sell SaaS or managed cloud to EU customers
Article 1(3)(f) applies the Act to providers of data processing services serving customers in the EU, wherever the provider is established. A Gurugram or Bengaluru SaaS firm with EU clients may therefore be a Chapter VI provider, subject to the scope question above: Article 25 switching clauses, usable exports, Article 28 disclosures and, from 12 January 2027, no switching charges.
That last duty has a cost no hyperscaler programme covers, because your customer is leaving you, not your cloud. A 50 TB customer export from Azure West Europe costs 10,000 GB x $0.087 plus 39,900 GB x $0.083, or $4,181.70 at list if it is the month's only internet egress; on AWS's Ireland tiers it is $4,292.70. After 12 January 2027 it cannot be charged as a switching fee, so it belongs in your standard pricing. Where exports include personal data, GDPR and, for Indian data principals, the DPDP Act still apply; our DPDP engineering playbook covers the export and erasure side.
Exit-plan checklist
Before 12 January 2027:
- Inventory every service, region and data store, with volumes and the monthly egress line.
- Classify each flow as switching, in-parallel or ordinary egress. Only the first is covered by the ban.
- Check notice, transitional period, exportable and exempted data lists and the switching-charge clause against Article 25.
- Read the provider's Article 29(4) to (6) disclosures, including services it flags as costly to switch.
- Map every commitment with end dates and early termination terms.
- Pick the route per provider: AWS EU addendum, Microsoft DPA terms or the Azure exit credit, or a Google Exit Notice.
- If moving before 12 January 2027, file the request or Exit Notice before transferring any data.
At switch time:
- Pilot one workload to test functional equivalence and real throughput.
- Budget the overlap months; dual running is usually the largest variable cost.
- Track the transitional period, use the one extension if needed, and retrieve everything within the retrieval window.
- Get written confirmation of erasure and keep the evidence.
For multi-cloud and for providers:
- For in-parallel traffic, configure Data Transfer Essentials, file Azure's at-cost request and ask AWS about reduced rates.
- If you sell SaaS to EU customers, update contracts, publish Article 28 information and price export egress into standard fees.
How eCorpIT can help
eCorpIT is a Gurugram-based technology organisation, founded in 2021, assessed at CMMI Level 5 and MSME certified, with senior-led engineering teams working across AWS, Microsoft and Google platforms. Our cloud migration team inventories services and data volumes, classifies each flow as switching, in-parallel or ordinary egress, pilots a workload to test functional equivalence and sequences the provider requests so credits are not lost. Talk to us at /contact-us/.
Last updated: 1 November 2026.
