19 June 2023
ICCL sends legal opinion to the European Commission defending complainants' right to be heard in GDPR cases. Many other organisations join our letter.
The European Commission is preparing new rules for how GDPR cross-border cases are run. To support the Commission we have commissioned a legal opinion by Timelex, a Brussels law firm, on one critically important question: We are concerned that the Commission may propose to strip complainants of their rights as full parties.
If that happens, then a person who makes a GDPR complaint will no longer have a right to be heard, or make submissions, or see what the company they are complaining about is saying to the enforcer behind their back.
The legal opinion by Timelex highlights the right to good administration (Article 41 of the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights), and the principle of equal treatment (Article 20 of the Charter). It argues that limiting the right to be heard of complainants would create legal uncertainty. Timelex also highlights that removing complainants' rights to make submissions and counter submissions made by companies would lower the quality of information available to enforcers. Finally, it notes that European Commission will not as a matter of law be able to make so far reaching a proposal without first conducting a detailed impact assessment. See the full legal opinion here.
The following civil society organisations have signed ICCL's letter to the European Commission today, presenting the legal opinion from Timelex.
- Access Now
- ARTICLE 19
- Avaaz Foundation
- BEUC - The European Consumer Organisation
- Bits of Freedom
- Centre for Peace Studies, Croatia
- Civil Liberties Union for Europe
- Corporate Europe Observatory
- Defend Democracy
- DigiQ, Slovakia
- Digital Rights Ireland
- EDRi
- Ekō
- Electronic Frontier Norway
- FairVote UK
- IT-Pol Denmark
- Irish Council for Civil Liberties
- Norwegian Consumer Council
- Noyb
- Panoptykon Foundation
- Politiscope
- Privacy International
- Today is a new day, Institute for other studies, Slovenia
- Women’s Lobby of Slovenia
- 5 Rights