European Parliament approves GDPR cross-border enforcement harmonisation law
21/10/2025 | European Parliament
The European Parliament has approved new additional procedural rules intended to accelerate cross-border enforcement of the EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), with 533 votes in favour, 43 against, and 68 abstaining. The legislation establishes clear deadlines for handling cross-border complaints, aiming to ensure timely resolution.
Under the new harmonisation law, a lead supervisory authority must now complete an investigation and submit a draft decision within 15 months, with a possible 12-month extension for complex cases. A simplified, 12-month procedure (with possible extension) is also introduced for straightforward investigations where there are no objections from other data protection authorities (DPAs). In addition, the legislation encourages early consensus among national DPAs and introduces a fast-track resolution for cases where an infringement has ceased.
The rules also enhance the rights of complainants, granting them the right to be heard before a decision is made and improving their access to information throughout the process.
The law now awaits formal adoption by the Council of the European Union. Once adopted, it will take effect 20 days after its publication in the EU Official Journal and will start to be applied 15 months after it comes into force.
Training Announcement: Freevacy offers a range of independent data protection qualifications from IAPP and BCS. Our certified courses are available at foundation and practitioner levels and cover multiple legal jurisdictions, data protection operations management, and the implementation of complex privacy solutions in technical environments. Find out more.
What is this page?
You are reading a summary article on the Privacy Newsfeed, a free resource for DPOs and other professionals with privacy or data protection responsibilities helping them stay informed of industry news all in one place. The information here is a brief snippet relating to a single piece of original content or several articles about a common topic or thread. The main contributor is listed in the top left-hand corner, just beneath the article title.
The Privacy Newsfeed monitors over 300 global publications, of which more than 6,250 summary articles have been posted to the online archive dating back to the beginning of 2020. A weekly roundup is available by email every Friday.