The EU Data Act and What It Means for Your Recipes
Two pieces of European legislation are quietly reshaping how companies handle your data, including the recipes you store in apps. Neither law was written with home cooks in mind, but both have implications worth understanding.
Let's look at what these laws actually say, what they require, and what it might mean for recipe apps in the years ahead.
The Digital Markets Act: Targeting Platform Lock-In
The EU Digital Markets Act (DMA) was enacted in 2022, with enforcement beginning in March 2024. Its primary targets are large online platforms the EU designates as "gatekeepers" -- companies like Apple, Google, Meta, and Amazon that control access to millions of users.
The DMA requires these gatekeepers to allow users to move their data between services. It prohibits practices that make switching artificially difficult. Companies that violate the DMA can face fines of up to 10% of their global annual turnover, with repeat offenses potentially reaching 20%.
Now, here is the honest caveat: most recipe apps are nowhere near large enough to be classified as gatekeepers under the DMA. The law targets platforms with at least 45 million monthly active users in the EU and a market capitalization of at least 75 billion euros. Paprika Recipe Manager, Cook'n, and CopyMeThat do not meet those thresholds.
But the DMA matters for recipe users in two indirect ways. First, it establishes a legal principle that data portability is a right, not a feature request. Second, it creates pressure across the broader software industry to adopt portability practices, because once the largest platforms are forced to comply, smaller apps face growing user expectations to follow suit.
The EU Data Act: Broader and More Relevant
The EU Data Act is the legislation with more direct implications for everyday software. Enacted in 2023, it applies from September 2025 and has a much wider scope than the DMA.
The Data Act establishes that users have the right to access and port data generated by their use of connected products and digital services. It requires data holders to make user data available in a "commonly used, machine-readable format" and to do so "without undue delay, free of charge, and where technically feasible, continuously and in real-time."
This is broader than GDPR's existing data portability rights under Article 20, which covers personal data you directly provide to a service. The Data Act extends to data generated through your use of a service -- which could include recipe collections you've built, modifications you've made, and organizational structures you've created within an app.
Whether recipe apps will be subject to the Data Act's full requirements depends on how enforcement bodies interpret the law's scope. The legislation is still new, and we have not yet seen test cases specific to recipe management software. But the direction is clear: the EU is systematically closing loopholes that allow companies to hold user-generated data hostage.
What GDPR Already Provides
It is worth remembering that GDPR, in effect since 2018, already gives EU residents data portability rights. Under Article 20, you have the right to receive personal data you have provided to a controller in a "structured, commonly used, and machine-readable format."
In practice, many recipe apps have responded to GDPR by offering export features that technically comply but remain intentionally inconvenient. Exporting to a proprietary format that no other app can read satisfies the letter of the law while undermining its spirit. The Data Act's emphasis on "commonly used" formats may eventually close this gap, but it remains to be seen how strictly regulators will enforce that standard.
What This Actually Means for Your Recipe Collection
Let's be straightforward about where things stand today. These laws are real, they are enacted, and they are being enforced -- but primarily against the largest technology companies. Recipe apps are not the EU's enforcement priority.
What these laws do provide is a legal framework and a direction of travel. The principle that users own their data and deserve practical ways to move it between services is no longer just an opinion. It is European law.
For home cooks, the practical takeaway is this: you should not wait for regulation to protect your recipe collection. Laws move slowly. Apps can shut down or change policies without warning. The users who lost recipes when Ziplist shut down in 2014 did not have time to wait for regulators to intervene.
Taking Portability Into Your Own Hands
While legislation catches up to the reality of how people use software, the best protection is keeping your recipes in formats you control.
MoveMyRecipes exists for exactly this purpose. Upload recipes from Paprika, Cook'n, CopyMeThat, or any supported format, and export them as JSON (Schema.org compliant), CSV, Markdown, CookLang, PDF, HTML, or Open Recipe Format (YAML). No account required. Your files are automatically deleted after seven days.
The EU's legislative direction is encouraging. The DMA and Data Act represent genuine progress toward a world where data portability is standard practice rather than an afterthought. But real data freedom does not come from waiting for laws to be enforced on your behalf. It comes from making regular exports, keeping local copies in open formats, and treating your recipe collection with the same care you would give any other irreplaceable personal archive.
The laws are catching up. In the meantime, you can act now.