Switching provider and ending a service

1. Scope and choices

These standard terms apply when incorporated into an Order for a data-processing service covered by Chapter VI of Regulation (EU) 2023/2854, the Data Act. Rights imposed by law apply independently of incorporation. You may switch to another provider of the same service type, move to your own ICT infrastructure, or choose erasure. Use of more than one provider must not be obstructed unlawfully.

We must not impose commercial, technical, contractual or organisational obstacles contrary to the Act. These terms do not claim an exemption because we are a small business. Any service-specific statutory exception must be justified before contracting, and we must tell you exactly which Chapter VI obligations do not apply to that service. Existing agreements remain subject to applicable mandatory law.

2. Request, notice and transition

Send your request to support@novasean.com or the agreed customer contact. Identify the service, requested option, proposed timing and, for a provider transfer, the destination details. We must verify authority proportionately and agree a secure handover with you and, where relevant, the destination provider.

The maximum notice period to initiate switching is two months from your request; a shorter agreed period applies. After that notice period, the mandatory transition must normally finish within 30 calendar days. We must provide reasonable assistance, maintain business continuity and the contractually agreed functions during transition, explain known risks to continuity, and maintain a high level of security throughout transfer and retrieval. All parties must cooperate in good faith.

If the 30-day transition is technically unfeasible, we must tell you within 14 working days of the request, explain and substantiate why, and specify an alternative period no longer than seven months. This is an evidenced exception, not the default. You may extend the transition once for a period you consider more suitable.

3. Data and digital assets

You are entitled to port at least all exportable data under the Act: input and output data, including metadata, directly or indirectly generated or co-generated through your use of the service, subject to the statutory exclusion for data or assets protected by our or a third party’s intellectual-property rights or trade secrets. The service’s full categories of portable data and digital assets, and narrowly identified excluded internal data, must be specified before contracting. An exclusion must not impede or delay switching.

The portability register states what must be confirmed for each service: data structures, formats, applicable standards or open interoperability specifications, availability, methods, restrictions and known technical limits. This URL forms part of an Order incorporating these terms. A service entry must be completed from tested export capability before that Order is accepted.

For infrastructure-only services within Article 30(1), we must take all reasonable measures in our power to facilitate functional equivalence at the destination. For other covered services, the applicable open-interface, interoperability and structured, commonly used, machine-readable export requirements apply. We cannot guarantee that a destination reproduces every managed feature. The Act does not require disclosure of protected provider technology or development of new technology beyond its requirements.

4. Retrieval, termination and erasure

After the transition ends, you must have at least 30 calendar days to retrieve data, or a longer period expressly agreed. We must tell you when the contract is considered terminated: on successful completion of switching, or at the end of the maximum notice period where you choose erasure rather than switching. The parties must reconcile any continuing retrieval access and charges with those termination events before exit.

Following the retrieval period, or a later agreed date, we must fully erase exportable data and digital assets directly related to you where the switching process has successfully completed. Personal-data return, deletion and legally required retention must also meet the DPA. The service schedule must identify residual copies, their justified expiry and how deletion is reapplied after restoration. We must not rely on unspecified backup retention to keep customer data indefinitely.

5. Charges

Until 12 January 2027, any reduced switching charge must have been clearly disclosed before contracting and must not exceed costs directly linked to that specific switch. These standard terms create no charge by themselves. From 12 January 2027, switching charges are prohibited for services to which Article 29 applies.

Ordinary service fees and any valid early-termination amount must be separately identified before contracting. A charge for mandatory switching work must not be disguised as an ordinary fee. Optional additional work outside the statutory switching duty requires a separate, clear agreement. Request an itemised explanation if the charge is unclear.

6. Locations, safeguards and complaints

The incorporated contract must reference the service-specific jurisdiction and foreign-government access disclosures. The location notice currently describes only website and enquiry infrastructure; it does not establish the full jurisdiction or safeguards of a VPS service. Those particulars must be completed for the actual service. The authority-request principles distinguish personal-data transfer rules from the Data Act’s protection of non-personal data.

If a switching request is refused or delayed, request written reasons and use the complaints route. Applicable statutory enforcement and court remedies remain available.