Tasks and Decisions of the President of the Personal Data Protection Office

Abstract

Changes in the field of personal data protection related to the entry into force of the provisions of the GDPR and the Act on the protection of personal data resulted in the imposition of a number of different tasks on the President of the Personal Data Protection Office. Many of them are implemented by this authority using the fundamental legal form of administrative action – i.e. an administrative decision, which in this case is adopted in one-instance proceedings. On this basis, the following analysis was carried out: the status and scope of tasks, including the supervisory powers of the President of the Personal Data Protection Office, and the procedural framework in which they are undertaken – including the form of an administrative decision. It was also considered worth to examine whether, in specific cases, the form of an administrative decision constitutes an adequate means of implementing the tasks entrusted by the provisions of the GDPR to the President of the Personal Data Protection Office. In the conclusion, the authors considered it justified to recommend that the legislator should precisely define the legal form in which the tasks of the President of the Personal Data Protection Office should be performed. Moreover, they indicated that the legislator does not seem to notice that the nature of the tasks entrusted to the President of UODO indicates that the form of an administrative decision does not always seem to be not only the best, but even appropriate. Especially when it comes to the actions of this authority related to the need to issue a warning or issue a reminder – the form of an administrative decision does not seem to be justified.