(1)The Secretary of State may by regulations require a regulated person to provide customer data—
(a)to a customer, at the customer's request;
(b)to a person who is authorised by a customer to receive the data, at the customer's request or, if the regulations so provide, at the authorised person's request.
(2)“Regulated person” means—
(a)a person who, in the course of a business, supplies gas or electricity to any premises;
(b)a person who, in the course of a business, provides a mobile phone service;
(c)a person who, in the course of a business, provides financial services consisting of the provision of current account or credit card facilities;
(d)any other person who, in the course of a business, supplies or provides goods or services of a description specified in the regulations.
(3)“Customer data” means information which—
(a)is held in electronic form by or on behalf of the regulated person, and
(b)relates to transactions between the regulated person and the customer.
(4)Regulations under subsection (1) may make provision as to the form in which customer data is to be provided and when it is to be provided (and any such provision may differ depending on the form in which a request for the data is made).
(5)Regulations under subsection (1)—
(a)may authorise the making of charges by a regulated person for complying with requests for customer data, and
(b)if they do so, must provide that the amount of any such charge—
(i)is to be determined by the regulated person, but
(ii)may not exceed the cost to that person of complying with the request.
(6)Regulations under subsection (1)(b) may provide that the requirement applies only if the authorised person satisfies any conditions specified in the regulations.
(7)In deciding whether to specify a description of goods or services for the purposes of subsection (2)(d), the Secretary of State must (among other things) have regard to the following—
(a)the typical duration of the period during which transactions between suppliers or providers of the goods or services and their customers take place;
(b)the typical volume and frequency of the transactions;
(c)the typical significance for customers of the costs incurred by them through the transactions;
(d)the effect that specifying the goods or services might have on the ability of customers to make an informed choice about which supplier or provider of the goods or services, or which particular goods or services, to use;
(e)the effect that specifying the goods or services might have on competition between suppliers or providers of the goods or services.
(8)The power to make regulations under this section may be exercised—
(a)so as to make provision generally, only in relation to particular descriptions of regulated persons, customers or customer data or only in relation to England, Wales, Scotland or Northern Ireland;
(b)so as to make different provision for different descriptions of regulated persons, customers or customer data;
(c)so as to make different provision in relation to England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland;
(d)so as to provide for exceptions or exemptions from any requirement imposed by the regulations, including doing so by reference to the costs to the regulated person of complying with the requirement (whether generally or in particular cases).
(9)For the purposes of this section, a person (“C”) is a customer of another person (“R”) if—
(a)C has at any time, including a time before the commencement of this section, purchased (whether for the use of C or another person) goods or services supplied or provided by R or received such goods or services free of charge, and
(b)the purchase or receipt occurred—
(i)otherwise than in the course of a business, or
(ii)in the course of a business of a description specified in the regulations.
(10)In this section, “mobile phone service” means an electronic communications service which is provided wholly or mainly so as to be available to members of the public for the purpose of communicating with others, or accessing data, by mobile phone.
Commencement Information
I1S. 89 partly in force; s. 89 in force for specified purposes at Royal Assent, see s. 103(1)(i)