Brussels, 19 July – An important innovation of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) is the new way in which the supervisory authorities of the Member States closely cooperate to ensure a consistent application as well as a consistent protection of individuals throughout the EU.
During its second plenary meeting on 4 and 5 July the EDPB discussed the consistency and the cooperation systems, sharing first experiences on the functioning of the One-Stop Shop mechanism, the performance of the Internal Market Information System (IMI), the challenges the authorities are facing and the type of questions received since 25 May. Most data protection authorities reported a substantial increase in complaints received. The first cross-border cases were initiated in IMI on 25 May. Currently, around 100 cross-border cases in IMI are under investigation.
The EDPB Chair Andrea Jelinek said: “Despite the sharp increase in the number of cases in the last month, the Members of the EDPB report that the workload is manageable for the moment, in large part thanks to a thorough preparation in the past two years by the Article 29 Data Protection Working Party. However, we should only expect the first results of the new procedures to deal with cross-border cases in a few months from now. To handle complaints lead supervisory authorities will have to carry out investigations, observe procedural rules, and coordinate and share information with other supervisory authorities. The GDPR sets specific deadlines for each phase of the procedure. All of this takes time. During this time, complainants are entitled to be kept informed on the state of play of a case. The GDPR does not offer a quick fix in case of a complaint but we are confident the procedures detailing the way in which the authorities work together are robust and efficient.”