European Union: Closed consultation on Proposal for a Regulation on Procedural Rules Relating to the enforcement of the GDPR

On 24 March 2023, the public consultation closed on the European Commission(EC) initiative for a Proposal for a Regulation on Procedural Rules Relating to the enforcement of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). The initiative aims to ameliorate, streamline, and coordinate GDPR enforcement efforts between National Data Protection Authorities when handling cross-border cases. Specifically, the EC aims to establish a dispute resolution mechanism for cases when national Data Protection Authorities cannot agree on a judgment. In its call for evidence, the EC noted that Member States had enforced the GDPR differently, including the reception and processing of complaints, the time needed for the proceedings, the amount of information the complainant receives during the investigation and the degree to which complainants have a "right to be heard". The initiative aims to set specific deadlines for national data protection authorities, support complainants by communicating their position better to the relevant authorities, specify channels for information sharing across the agencies, and the steps to be followed in cross-border cases.