Frequently Asked Questions

Certification bodies are accredited by the national data protection authorities (DPA) or by the national accreditation body (named in accordance with Regulation 17065/2012). For further information regarding certification bodies, we recommend contacting the national DPA in your country. You can find an overview of all EEA DPAs here.

You can find further information regarding accreditation of certification bodies here: Guidelines 4/2018 on the accreditation of certification bodies under Article 43 of the General Data Protection Regulation (2016/679)

Controllers should formally submit their EU-wide certification criteria to:

1. the competent data protection authority (DPA) in the EEA country where the scheme owners have their headquarters;
2. the competent data protection authority (DPA) in the EEA country where a certification body operating the certification mechanism have their headquarters, considering the member state in which the most certificates are likely to be issued.

The European Data Protection Board (EDPB) is an independent European body, which contributes to the consistent application of data protection rules throughout the European Union, and promotes cooperation between the EU’s data protection authorities (DPAs), as well as the DPAs of Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway (the European Economic Area or EEA).

All documents adopted during the EDPB Plenary are subject to the necessary legal, linguistic and formatting checks and will be made available on the EDPB website once these have been completed.

Once published, recently adopted documents will be listed under “latest publications” on the main page of this website.

You can also find overviews of the documents adopted per plenary on the EDPB news page.

The EDPB brings together the EU DPAs and the European Data Protection Supervisor (EDPS). The EEA EFTA countries (Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway) are also members with regard to GDPR-related matters and without the rights to vote and to be elected as chair or deputy chair. The European Commission and - with regard to GDPR-related matters - the EFTA Surveillance Authority have the right to participate in the activities and meetings of the Board without voting rights.

You can find an overview of the EEA DPAs here.

As addressees of the EDPB decisions, the relevant Data Protection Authorities (DPAs) that wish to challenge these decisions can bring an action for annulment before the European Court of Justice (CJEU) within two months of being notified.

The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) requires the Data Protection Authority (DPA) of the European Economic Area (EEA) to cooperate closely - under the umbrella of the European Data Protection Board (EDPB) - to ensure the consistent application of the GDPR and the protection of individuals’ data protection rights across the EEA. One of their tasks is to coordinate decision-making in cross-border data processing cases.
A processing is cross-border when:

• data processing takes place in more than one country;
• or it substantially affects or it is likely to substantially affect individuals in more than one country.

Under the so-called one-stop-shop mechanism Art. 60 GDPR, the Lead Supervisory Authority (LSA) acts as the main point of contact for the controller or processor for a given processing, while the Concerned Supervisory Authorities (CSAs) act as the main point of contact for individuals in the territory of their Member State. The LSA is the authority in charge of leading the cooperation process. It will share relevant information with the CSAs, carry out the investigations, prepare the draft decision relating to the case, and cooperate with the other CSAs in an endeavour to reach consensus on this draft decision.

Please note that the EDPB does not contact individuals, via phone or other means of communication, to inform them of such matters.

Therefore, it could be that the call you received represents a phishing attack targeting you abusing our name.

All comments submitted are screened and reviewed manually before being displayed on our website. There should have been a visual confirmation after submitting your comments on our website.

In any case, please allow for some time before your comments are published.

If you believe your data protection rights have been violated you can contact the organisation holding your data, contact your national data protection authority (DPA), or go to a national court.

DPAs can conduct investigations and impose sanctions where necessary. You can find the contact details for all EEA DPAs here.