Article 37 GDPR - Designation of the data protection officer

1. The controller and the processor shall designate a data protection officer in any case where:
(a) the processing is carried out by a public authority or body, except for courts acting in their judicial capacity;
(b) the core activities of the controller or the processor consist of processing operations which, by virtue of their nature, their scope and/or their purposes, require regular and systematic monitoring of data subjects on a large scale; or
(c) the core activities of the controller or the processor consist of processing on a large scale of special categories of data pursuant to Article 9 or personal data relating to criminal convictions and offences referred to in Article 10.
2. A group of undertakings may appoint a single data protection officer provided that a data protection officer is easily accessible from each establishment.
3. Where the controller or the processor is a public authority or body, a single data protection officer may be designated for several such authorities or bodies, taking account of their organisational structure and size.
4. In cases other than those referred to in paragraph 1, the controller or processor or associations and other bodies representing categories of controllers or processors may or, where required by Union or Member State law shall, designate a data protection officer. The data protection officer may act for such associations and other bodies representing controllers or processors.
5. The data protection officer shall be designated on the basis of professional qualities and, in particular, expert knowledge of data protection law and practices and the ability to fulfil the tasks referred to in Article 39.
6. The data protection officer may be a staff member of the controller or processor, or fulfil the tasks on the basis of a service contract.
7. The controller or the processor shall publish the contact details of the data protection officer and communicate them to the supervisory authority.

Relevant Recitals

Frequently Asked Questions

Short answers to common questions about this provision. They are general information and not legal advice.

Paragraph 1 makes designation mandatory in three cases. They are processing by a public authority or body, except courts acting in their judicial capacity, core activities consisting of processing operations which require regular and systematic monitoring of data subjects on a large scale, and core activities consisting of large-scale processing of special categories of data under Article 9 or data relating to criminal convictions and offences under Article 10.

Yes. Paragraph 1 addresses the controller and the processor alike, and the core-activities tests in points (b) and (c) refer expressly to the activities of the controller or the processor. A processor may therefore be obliged to designate an officer even where its controller clients are not.

Yes. Under paragraph 2 a group of undertakings may appoint a single officer provided the officer is easily accessible from each establishment, and under paragraph 3 a single officer may be designated for several public authorities or bodies, taking account of their organisational structure and size.

Paragraph 5 requires designation on the basis of professional qualities, in particular expert knowledge of data protection law and practices and the ability to fulfil the tasks listed in Article 39. Paragraph 6 adds that the officer may be a staff member or may fulfil the tasks on the basis of a service contract, so an external appointment is permitted.

Paragraph 7 requires the controller or processor to publish the contact details of the officer and to communicate them to the supervisory authority. The provision concerns contact details, which supports the officer's accessibility to data subjects under Article 38(4) and the contact-point function towards the authority under point (e) of Article 39(1).