Data Intermediaries and Data Trustees: The EU, UK and US Compared

A business that manages personal data on behalf of individuals is treated differently in each of the three largest Western markets. The differences decide what it must register for, what it may earn from, and whether other organisations have to deal with it at all.

European Union

The EU has a dedicated regime. Under the Data Governance Act a data intermediation service must notify a national authority before starting, stay neutral, operate through a separate legal person and act in individuals’ best interests. The Commission has proposed making that regime voluntary and moving it into the Data Act. That proposal is not yet law.

United Kingdom

The UK has no dedicated regime. An intermediary acts as the individual’s agent under general law, and ICO guidance accepts that requests can be made on someone’s behalf. Whether the core data rights can be formally delegated is unsettled. The government consulted on fixing that in summer 2026 and has not yet said what it will do. Separately, the Data (Use and Access) Act 2025 gives ministers power to create sector “smart data” schemes on the open banking model.

United States

There is no federal regime. California lets consumers appoint an authorised agent and limits what that agent may do with their data. Businesses that sell data about people they have no direct relationship with are regulated from the other side, as data brokers. California now runs its own central deletion platform.

What “trustee” adds

In none of the three is “data trustee” a legal category. The duties people associate with the word come from somewhere else: agency and contract in the UK and US, and the best-interests and neutrality rules in the EU.

The label is a marketing choice. The duties, and who can enforce them, are the legal design.

A product offered in all three markets needs a structure that satisfies the strictest of them, and a mandate that each can recognise.

This article is general information on the law as at November 2026. It is not legal advice and has not been updated since that date. See the terms of use.