Open letter: Improvements to the enforcement of the General Data Protection Regulation
EDRi has signed an open letter organised by consumer and civil society organisations to welcome the intention of the European Commission to improve the enforcement of the General Data Protection Regulation. We call on the Commission to ensure that the draft Regulation improves the efficiency of enforcement and ensures data subjects can exercise their rights in a fair, effective, and affordable manner.
The proposal must at the very least:
- provide mutual recognition of admissibility of complaints and data subject representation;
- achieve more efficient and closer cooperation between supervisory authorities including clear deadlines for complaint resolution procedures and cross–country enforceability of decisions;
- grant complainants and organisations representing them comprehensive rights to be heard and access to the file in the same way defendants have; and
- ensure that appeals against authorities’ decisions follow effective procedures that will not extend litigation for years.
The new proposal should reduce bureaucracy and delays when supervisory authorities work together. It should alleviate the process to remedy data protection violations in a timely and effective manner. The proposal should build on existing best practices across Member States and not adopt the lowest common denominator, particularly regarding complainants’ rights to be heard and access to documents.
It must not prevent the application of existing and more favourable national rules for data subjects. It should also include provisions to allow supervisory authorities to cooperate with other enforcement authorities from different sectors (such as competition, financial services, energy and telecom regulators and consumer protection authorities) where relevant, for example with regards to sharing information.
