There’s something new, and it’s called Data Transfer Essentials.
Google has just launched this service, which provides access to discounted pricing for data transfer charges in the context of multicloud usage. It targets internal applications exclusively. More precisely, transfers between services within the same company operating on different clouds connected via the Internet.
Data Transfer Essentials operates based on configurations defined by cloud region and by project. You specify the services to include and you pair destinations (AS + network prefix). About fifteen providers are compatible: Alibaba, Amazon, Clever Cloud, DigitalOcean, Elastx, Gridscale, Hetzner Online, IBM, IONOS, Microsoft, Oracle, OVHcloud, Rackspace, Scaleway, Seeweb and UpCloud.
The service is available only to customers in the EU and the United Kingdom. And for good reason: it is a response to the Data Act. This European regulation takes effect on 12 September 2025. One of its provisions forbids, in multicloud usage, charging customers data-transfer fees higher than the costs actually borne by the provider.
Awaiting ARCEP Guidelines
In France, this element is incorporated into the SREN law, enacted in May 2024. A decree from the minister responsible for digital affairs is supposed to define a maximum pricing amount. ARCEP, the telecoms regulator, must adopt guidelines. At the end of 2024, it conducted a public consultation on the matter. The authority sought to understand to what extent providers would have to deploy equipment or take actions specifically to comply with this obligation. It also noted an immediacy requirement that could lead these providers to reexamine their network capacity to absorb demand spikes. But it also pointed out that CSPs could negotiate free peering agreements with destination clouds.
One measure of the Data Act is already in effect: since 11 January 2024, it is forbidden to impose “egress fees” — that is, charges for changing provider or rehoming data on site — that exceed the costs actually incurred. By 2027, these egress fees must have been removed. AWS, Google and Microsoft, among others, have already done so… on varying scopes. The benefit is passed on as a discount on the final bill.
In France, since the promulgation of the SREN, contracts must state the nature and amount of any potential data-transfer and provider-change fees.
