Contribution to the public consultation on the Guidelines 01/2022 on data subject rights – the right of access

The Guidelines 01/2022 on data subject rights – Right of access (‘the Guidance’) are long awaited and form an important contribution for the better understanding of the right of access under the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). The right of access is often argued to be the most important individual right the GDPR grants to individuals and is strongly linked to the fundamental right to personal data protection (Article 8 Charter), as also noted by the European Data Protection Board (EDPB) in the Guidance. We therefore welcome the adoption of the draft Guidance and the possibility to provide comments on it.

As legal researchers active in this area, we would also like to raise three areas of concern to the attention of the EDPB, where in our opinion some changes would be needed for the final version to ensure the full effectiveness of the right of access. These areas of concern are linked to (1) the provision of the right of access, (2) the limitations and restrictions of the right of access, and (3) the scope of the Guidance. This contribution will discuss each of these areas to formulate concrete questions to be answered for the final version of the Guidance. In light of the considerable length of the discussed Guidance, this contribution will not be able to discuss all potential issues arising from it but focus on those most linked to our own areas of expertise