Lead Data Protection Authority

The Article 29 Working Party (“WP29”) – the representatives of national data protection regulators in the EU – has issued new guidance on three important aspects of the new General Data Protection Regulation (“GDPR”), which comes into force in May 2018.

This first salvo of GDPR-focused guidance concerns:

  1. the new “Right to Data Portability”, an obligation on companies and public authorities to build tools that allow users to download their data or transfer it directly to a competitor (the guidance is here, and an FAQ is here);
  2. the new obligation for organizations to appoint a “Data Protection Officer”, a quasi-independent role within companies that will be tasked with internal supervision and advice regarding GDPR compliance (guidance / FAQ); and
  3. the new “One Stop Shop” mechanism – helping companies identify which “lead” data protection authority will be their main point of contact for multi-country regulatory procedures (guidance / FAQ).

Despite the guidance having formally been “adopted”, the WP29 is nevertheless inviting stakeholder comments on the new guidance, until the end of January 2017.  Indeed, the guidance takes a number of positions that could attract large volumes of comments ahead of the January 31 deadline.
Continue Reading New EU GDPR Guidance: Data Portability, Data Protection Officers, and the One Stop Shop