Article 57
Tasks
There is no recital in the Directive related to article 57.
Regulation
Art. 57 1. Without prejudice to other tasks set out under this Regulation, each supervisory authority shall on its territory: (a) monitor and enforce the application of this Regulation; (b) promote public awareness and understanding of the risks, rules, safeguards and rights in relation to processing. Activities addressed specifically to children shall receive specific attention; (c) advise, in accordance with Member State law, the national parliament, the government, and other institutions and bodies on legislative and administrative measures relating to the protection of natural persons' rights and freedoms with regard to processing; (d) promote the awareness of controllers and processors of their obligations under this Regulation; (e) upon request, provide information to any data subject concerning the exercise of their rights under this Regulation and, if appropriate, cooperate with the supervisory authorities in other Member States to that end; (f) handle complaints lodged by a data subject, or by a body, organisation or association in accordance with Article 80, and investigate, to the extent appropriate, the subject matter of the complaint and inform the complainant of the progress and the outcome of the investigation within a reasonable period, in particular if further investigation or coordination with another supervisory authority is necessary; (g) cooperate with, including sharing information and provide mutual assistance to, other supervisory authorities with a view to ensuring the consistency of application and enforcement of this Regulation; (h) conduct investigations on the application of this Regulation, including on the basis of information received from another supervisory authority or other public authority; (i) monitor relevant developments, insofar as they have an impact on the protection of personal data, in particular the development of information and communication technologies and commercial practices; (j) adopt standard contractual clauses referred to in Article 28(8) and in point (d) of Article 46(2); (k) establish and maintain a list in relation to the requirement for data protection impact assessment pursuant to Article 35(4); (l) give advice on the processing operations referred to in Article 36(2); (m) encourage the drawing up of codes of conduct pursuant to Article 40(1) and provide an opinion and approve such codes of conduct which provide sufficient safeguards, pursuant to Article 40(5); (n) encourage the establishment of data protection certification mechanisms and of data protection seals and marks pursuant to Article 42(1), and approve the criteria of certification pursuant to Article 42(5); (o) where applicable, carry out a periodic review of certifications issued in accordance with Article 42(7); (p) draft and publish the criteria for accreditation of a body for monitoring codes of conduct pursuant to Article 41 and of a certification body pursuant to Article 43; (q) conduct the accreditation of a body for monitoring codes of conduct pursuant to Article 41 and of a certification body pursuant to Article 43; (r) authorise contractual clauses and provisions referred to in Article 46(3); (s) approve binding corporate rules pursuant to Article 47; (t) contribute to the activities of the Board; (u) keep internal records of infringements of this Regulation and of measures taken in accordance with Article 58(2); and (v) fulfil any other tasks related to the protection of personal data. 2. Each supervisory authority shall facilitate the submission of complaints referred to in point (f) of paragraph 1 by measures such as a complaint submission form which can also be completed electronically, without excluding other means of communication. 3. The performance of the tasks of each supervisory authority shall be free of charge for the data subject and, where applicable, for the data protection officer. 4. Where requests are manifestly unfounded or excessive, in particular because of their repetitive character, the supervisory authority may charge a reasonable fee based on administrative costs, or refuse to act on the request. The supervisory authority shall bear the burden of demonstrating the manifestly unfounded or excessive character of the request. |
Directive
Art. 28 1. Each Member State shall provide that one or more public authorities are responsible for monitoring the application within its territory of the provisions adopted by the Member States pursuant to this Directive. These authorities shall act with complete independence in exercising the functions entrusted to them. 2. Each Member State shall provide that the supervisory authorities are consulted when drawing up administrative measures or regulations relating to the protection of individuals' rights and freedoms with regard to the processing of personal data. 3. Each authority shall in particular be endowed with: - investigative powers, such as powers of access to data forming the subject-matter of processing operations and powers to collect all the information necessary for the performance of its supervisory duties, - effective powers of intervention, such as, for example, that of delivering opinions before processing operations are carried out, in accordance with Article 20, and ensuring appropriate publication of such opinions, of ordering the blocking, erasure or destruction of data, of imposing a temporary or definitive ban on processing, of warning or admonishing the controller, or that of referring the matter to national parliaments or other political institutions, - the power to engage in legal proceedings where the national provisions adopted pursuant to this Directive have been violated or to bring these violations to the attention of the judicial authorities. Decisions by the supervisory authority which give rise to complaints may be appealed against through the courts. 4. Each supervisory authority shall hear claims lodged by any person, or by an association representing that person, concerning the protection of his rights and freedoms in regard to the processing of personal data. The person concerned shall be informed of the outcome of the claim. Each supervisory authority shall, in particular, hear claims for checks on the lawfulness of data processing lodged by any person when the national provisions adopted pursuant to Article 13 of this Directive apply. The person shall at any rate be informed that a check has taken place. 5. Each supervisory authority shall draw up a report on its activities at regular intervals. The report shall be made public. 6. Each supervisory authority is competent, whatever the national law applicable to the processing in question, to exercise, on the territory of its own Member State, the powers conferred on it in accordance with paragraph 3. Each authority may be requested to exercise its powers by an authority of another Member State. The supervisory authorities shall cooperate with one another to the extent necessary for the performance of their duties, in particular by exchanging all useful information. 7. Member States shall provide that the members and staff of the supervisory authority, even after their employment has ended, are to be subject to a duty of professional secrecy with regard to confidential information to which they have access. |
Austria
Tasks § 21 DSG (1) At their request, the Data Protection Authority advises the committees of the National Council and the Federal Council, the Federal Government and the provincial governments on legislative and administrative measures. Before federal laws as well as regulations to be implemented by the Federal Government that directly concern issues of data protection law are adopted, the Federal Data Protection Authority shall be consulted. (2) The Data Protection Authority shall make public, by way of a regulation in the Federal Law Gazette, the lists pursuant to Article 35 paras. 4 and 5 of the General Data Protection Regulation. (3) The Data Protection Authority shall make public, by way of a regulation, the criteria to be specified pursuant to Article 57 para. 1 (p) of the General Data Protection Regulation. At the same time, the Data Protection Authority shall serve as the only national accreditation body pursuant to Article 43 para. 1 (a) of the General Data Protection Regulation. Complaints with the Data Protection Authority § 24 DSG (1) Every data subject has the right to lodge a complaint with the Data Protection Authority if the data subject is of the opinion that the processing of the personal data concerning the data subject infringes the General Data Protection Regulation or § 1 or Chapter 1, Article 2. (2) The complaint must contain:
(3) A complaint must be accompanied by the request on which it is based and the answer of the respondent to the complaint, if any. In the case of a complaint, the Data Protection Authority shall provide further assistance on request of the data subject. (4) The right to have a complaint dealt with expires if the intervening party does not lodge the complaint within a year after having gained knowledge of the incident that gave rise to the complaint, but no later than within three years after the incident allegedly occurred. Late complaints shall be rejected. (5) To the extent the complaint is shown to be justified, it is to be granted. If an infringement can be attributed to a private-sector controller, the controller shall be instructed to comply with the complainant’s requests for information, rectification, erasure, restriction or data communication to the extent required to eliminate the infringement that has been found to exist. To the extent that the complaint is not found to be justified, it shall be rejected. (6) A respondent to the complaint can subsequently eliminate the alleged infringement until the end of the proceedings before the Data Protection Authority by complying with the complainant’s requests. If the Data Protection Authority deems the complaint to be settled thereby, it shall hear the complainant on this. Simultaneously, the complainant is to be informed that the Data Protection Authority will informally end the proceedings unless the complainant states reasons, within a reasonable period, why the complainant still considers the originally alleged infringement or at least parts of it as not having been eliminated. If such a statement by the complainant modifies the merits of the case (§ 13 para 8 of the General Administrative Procedure Act), the original complaint is to be deemed withdrawn and simultaneously a new complaint to be deemed lodged. In this case the original complaint procedure is also to be ended informally and the complainant is to be informed thereof. Late statements are to be ignored. (7) The data subject shall be informed by the Data Protection Authority of the progress and the outcome of the investigation within three months of filing the complaint. (8) Each data subject can apply to the Federal Administrative Court if the Data Protection Authority does not handle a complaint or does not inform the data subject within three months of the progress or outcome of the complaint lodged. (9) To the extent required, the Data Protection Authority can engage official experts to assist in the proceedings. (10) The term allowed for the decision pursuant to § 73 of the General Administrative Procedure Act shall not include:
Accompanying measures in the complaint procedure § 25 DSG (1) If, in the context of a complaint, the complainant satisfactorily demonstrates a serious infringement of his or her interests in confidentiality which deserve protection due to the processing of the complainant’s personal data, the Data Protection Authority may proceed according to § 22 para. 4. (2) If the correctness of personal data is disputed in proceedings, the respondent to the complaint shall submit, by the end of the proceedings, a note stating that the correctness is disputed. If required, the Data Protection Authority shall order, by an administrative decision pursuant to § 57 para. 1 of the General Administrative Procedure Act, such note to be submitted at the request of the complainant. (3) If a controller invokes a restriction pursuant to Article 23 of the General Data Protection Regulation in relation to the Data Protection Authority, the Data Protection Authority shall examine the lawfulness of the application of the restrictions. If the Data Protection Authority comes to the conclusion that it was not justified in keeping the processed personal data secret from the data subject, the disclosure of the data shall be ordered by an administrative decision. If the administrative decision by the Data Protection Authority is not complied with within eight weeks, the Data Protection Authority shall disclose the personal data to the data subject and shall communicate to the data subject the desired information or inform the data subject of the personal data that have already been rectified or erased. (4) Administrative decisions that permit the transfer of data abroad shall be revoked once the legal or factual prerequisites for the issue of the permit no longer apply. |