European UnionDatabase Directive, Sui Generis Right and Lawful-User Exceptions
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What follows is LexLint's own research summary of this law, not legal advice.
In force since 1 January 1998.
A database right rule binding public and private bodies.
As of 24 September 2026.
What it requires
- Do not extract or re-utilize the whole or a substantial part, evaluated qualitatively or quantitatively, of an EU database's contents without the maker's authorization, where the maker shows a substantial investment in obtaining, verifying, or presenting that content.
- Do not repeatedly and systematically extract or re-utilize insubstantial parts of a database's contents where doing so conflicts with the database's normal exploitation or unreasonably prejudices the maker's legitimate interests, even where no single extraction takes a substantial part.
- Where lawfully accessing a database the maker has made available to the public, extracting or re-utilizing insubstantial parts for any purpose does not need the maker's authorization, but stop short of conflicting with the database's normal exploitation or unreasonably prejudicing the maker's interests.
- Treat the sui generis right as running for fifteen years from the database's completion or first public availability, whichever is later, and expect a substantial new investment in its contents to restart that term.
If you get it wrong
Criminal exposureNo
Private right of actionYes
Who enforces it
Enforcement body
National courts under each Member State's civil remedies for the sui generis database right; the Directive names no enforcement authority of its own.
What it reaches
Obligation class
Prohibition
What this law does
Drafted with AI from the cited sources under the direction of UnGovr staff. UnGovr holds editorial responsibility for this page.
Article 7(1) gives the maker of a database that shows a substantial investment, evaluated qualitatively or quantitatively, in obtaining, verifying or presenting its contents a sui generis right to prevent extraction or re-utilization of the whole or a substantial part of that content.
Article 7(2) defines extraction as the permanent or temporary transfer of all or a substantial part of the contents to another medium by any means or in any form, and re-utilization as any form of making that content available to the public by distribution or another means.
Article 7(5) separately bars the repeated and systematic extraction or re-utilization of insubstantial parts where doing so conflicts with the database's normal exploitation or unreasonably prejudices the maker's legitimate interests, so a scraper cannot evade the substantial-part threshold by taking small pieces on a recurring basis.
Article 8 lets a lawful user of a database made available to the public extract or re-utilize insubstantial parts for any purpose without the maker's authorization, but bars any act conflicting with the database's normal exploitation or unreasonably prejudicing the maker's legitimate interests, or causing prejudice to a copyright or related right in the database's contents; Article 15 makes a contractual provision contrary to Article 8 void.
Article 9 lets a Member State permit a lawful user to extract a substantial part without the maker's authorization for private purposes from a non-electronic database, for illustration in teaching or scientific research with the source indicated and to a non-commercial extent, or for public security or an administrative or judicial procedure.
Article 10 runs the right for fifteen years from completion of the database, or, where the database is made available to the public before that period expires, for fifteen years from the year it was first made available; a substantial new investment in the database's contents, evaluated qualitatively or quantitatively, gives the resulting database its own fresh fifteen-year term.
A Member State's own transposition of this Directive, such as France's Code de la propriete intellectuelle Articles L341-1 to L343-7, is that state's own law.
When LexLint raises it
crawls_webtrains_modelsaggregates_content
Read the law
Official Journal text, EUR-Lex, Directive 96/9/EC
Every line above is drawn from the primary source linked here, read on the date shown. This is a research summary, not legal advice.