During its 39th plenary session on 12 October 2020, the EDPB adopted guidelines on the concept of relevant and reasoned objection. The EDPB says that the guidelines will “contribute to a unified interpretation of the concept, which will help streamline future Art. 65 GDPR procedures”. Under the cooperation mechanism set out in the GDPR, supervisory authorities (SAs) have a duty to “exchange all relevant information with each other” and cooperate “in an endeavour to reach consensus”.

Under Article 60(3) and (4) GDPR, the lead supervisory authority (LSA) is required to submit a draft decision to the concerned supervisory authorities (CSAs), which may then raise a relevant and reasoned objection within a specific timeframe. Upon receipt of a relevant and reasoned objection, the LSA can decide not to follow the relevant and reasoned objection, for example if it considers that the objection is not reasoned or relevant, and can submit the matter to the Board. Alternatively, the LSA can accept the objection and issue a revised draft decision. In that case, the CSAs can then express a further relevant and reasoned objection on the revised draft decision within a period of two weeks.

The guidelines aim to establish a common understanding of the notion of “relevant and reasoned”, including what should be taken into consideration when assessing whether an objection “clearly demonstrates the significance of the risks posed by the draft decision” (Article 4(24) GDPR). To read the EDPB’s press release in full, click here. The guidelines will be made available on the EDPB website once they have gone through the “necessary legal, linguistic and formatting checks”.