Germany: Irish data protection commission needs more resources to regulate big techs

The new data protection regulation, known as GDPR, gives Ireland’s regulator frontline responsibility for overseeing Dublin-based tech companies. However, according to the German regulator, what was devised as a ‘one-stop shop’ to simplify regulatory oversight, had led to regulatory standstill. Thus, the German regulator criticised the professional performance of a body ‘insufficiently equipped for its task’.

The German federal regulator has suggested a streamlined system allowing the transfer of cross-border cases to a European data protection agency if a three-quarters majority of EU member states’ regulators were in favour. Furthermore, the regulator in Hamburg has suggested imposing a time limit for national authorities to reach a finding – or have the case revoked by European authorities.

A DPC spokesman dismissed Germany’s authority criticism, saying: ‘This singling out of the Irish DPC is not new from the federal commissioner. We are just busy with getting on with the job of concluding our investigations’, according to the Irish Times.