Browsing by Author "Tritter, Elias"

Direct GDPR enforcement by supervisory authorities, despite setting global standards for data protection, has amassed considerable criticism concerning the limited impact, inconsistency, and inefficiency in dealing with international GDPR breaches and complaints. The Commission aims to address these issues through additional procedural rules that strengthen cooperative methods of enforcement between supervisory authorities. This contrasts with the ‘Europeanization’ of national enforcement networks, as agency bodies and the Commission have taken larger enforcement roles to ensure the compliance of international actors with post-GDPR legislation such as the DSA. In addressing this tension, this thesis considers the current criticisms of international GDPR enforcement. It then takes inspiration from both the additional procedural rules and the DSA to posit a hypothetical centralized model for GDPR enforcement through an interdisciplinary lens. The hypothetical model is evaluated to consider to what extent a centralized form of the GDPR would solve the international enforcement issues. This thesis finds that issues of procedural inefficiency, international application inconsistencies, and inconsistent remedies could be addressed through a centralized model for the GDPR. A hypothetical model would use the active network chair and more formalized ex-ante measures seen in the DSA through a new Commission DG to streamline international enforcement and reduce divergence in supervisory enforcement processes for national and international cases. These benefits have to be weighed against the strong independence requirements, weak normative justifications, and procedural bloat that would plague the hypothetical model.