This contribution intends to examine digital platforms and ecosystems in the framework of the European Data Strategy, identifying data as a strategic business asset. The European Union, through the regulatory season that has seen the approval of some relevant measures, such as the Data Governance Act and the Data Act, aims at using data as an ‘engine’ of transformation and an ‘antidote’ to monopolies. The European Strategy promotes the opening, sharing and re-use of public and private data, ‘crossing’ new products and services (interconnected through the Internet) and new business models, centred on data and enabling technologies. At the same time, the protection of intellectual property is strengthened, seeking a balance between the openness of data and the protection of rights to enhance investments, the value of innovation and know-how.