On September 12, the EDPB announced its second coordinated enforcement action which will focus on the designation and position of the data protection officer. The data protection authorities across the European Economic Area, in coordination with the European Data Protection Supervisor, will launch investigations into pre-determined aspects of DPO requirements as provisioned under the GDPR. The results of these individual national actions will be bundled and analysed, generating deeper insight into the topic and allowing for targeted follow-up on both the national and the EU level.
In the coming months the EDPB and is members will specify and agree the nature and scope of the coordinated investigation.
This new coordinated action follows the EDPB decision to set up a Coordinated Enforcement Framework (CEF) in October 2020. The CEF is a key action of the EDPB under its 2021-2023 Strategy, together with the creation of a Support Pool of Experts (SPE). The two initiatives aim to streamline enforcement and cooperation among DPAs.
The press release can be found here
The promotion of the role and perspective of the DPO is one of CEDPO’s key objectives. In advance of the EDPB’s enforcement action, CEDPO has gathered recent decisions from supervisory authorities and court rulings on the DPO from selected Members States. This overview is aimed at increasing awareness at organisations regarding the importance of the role of the DPO. The new section called “DPO Case Law” on the CEDPO website is accessible here.