#62024CJ0414GDPR complaints and court claims can run in parallel
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Individuals can use both GDPR routes at the same time: they may complain to a data protection authority and also bring a court claim against the organisation handling their data. A regulator cannot simply refuse to examine a GDPR complaint just because a court case about the same facts is already pending. Member States may create procedural rules to prevent conflicting outcomes, but those rules must not make GDPR rights harder to use in practice. Businesses and public bodies should expect parallel regulatory and court scrutiny when a data subject challenges how personal data was handled.
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Key Changes
- Confirms that GDPR complaints to supervisory authorities and court actions against controllers or processors are independent remedies.
- Limits the ability of data protection authorities to reject complaints solely because a related court case is pending.
- Allows Member States to manage parallel proceedings only if their rules preserve effective access to GDPR remedies.
Obligations
What this law requires
GDPR Articles 77 and 79 allow a data subject to pursue both remedies in parallel: lodging a complaint with a national supervisory authority and bringing a judicial remedy against the controller or processor concerning the same personal-data processing facts.
A national supervisory authority may not refuse to examine a GDPR Article 77 complaint solely because a judicial remedy under GDPR Article 79 concerning the same facts is already pending.
Member States may adopt procedural rules to coordinate parallel GDPR administrative and judicial remedies and avoid contradictory decisions, provided those rules comply with the principles of equivalence and effectiveness.
National procedural rules governing parallel GDPR remedies must not make the exercise of rights under GDPR Articles 77 and 79 impossible or excessively difficult in practice.