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EU regulatory register · GDPR

Article 34Communication of a personal data breach to the data subject

CELEX 32016R0679 · Read on 2026-08-18 · Chapter IV

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Short answer

1. When the personal data breach is likely to result in a high risk to the rights and freedoms of natural persons, the controller shall communicate the personal data breach to the data subject without undue delay.

Verbatim from the article. Source: NovaCopilot · https://legal.exploreworldai.com/eu/rattsakter/gdpr-2016-679/artikel-34 · Short answer as data · Official text

Official text

Read from the EU Publications Office for this CELEX number. The wording stands as published; nothing here is rewritten or summarised.

1. When the personal data breach is likely to result in a high risk to the rights and freedoms of natural persons, the controller shall communicate the personal data breach to the data subject without undue delay.

2. The communication to the data subject referred to in paragraph 1 of this Article shall describe in clear and plain language the nature of the personal data breach and contain at least the information and measures referred to in points (b), (c) and (d) of Article 33(3).

3. The communication to the data subject referred to in paragraph 1 shall not be required if any of the following conditions are met:

(a)

the controller has implemented appropriate technical and organisational protection measures, and those measures were applied to the personal data affected by the personal data breach, in particular those that render the personal data unintelligible to any person who is not authorised to access it, such as encryption;

(b)

the controller has taken subsequent measures which ensure that the high risk to the rights and freedoms of data subjects referred to in paragraph 1 is no longer likely to materialise;

(c)

it would involve disproportionate effort. In such a case, there shall instead be a public communication or similar measure whereby the data subjects are informed in an equally effective manner.

4. If the controller has not already communicated the personal data breach to the data subject, the supervisory authority, having considered the likelihood of the personal data breach resulting in a high risk, may require it to do so or may decide that any of the conditions referred to in paragraph 3 are met.

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Knowledge card

Applies
controller: Communicate a personal data breach likely to result in a high risk to the rights and freedoms of natural persons to the data subjects in clear and plain language.
Risk if ignored
high
What to do
Communicate a personal data breach likely to result in a high risk to the rights and freedoms of natural persons to the data subjects in clear and plain language.
Deadline
Without undue delay; not required where Article 34(3) applies (encryption, subsequent measures or disproportionate effort with public communication).

card:eu:article:gdpr--art-34 · sha256 e148e1c36942 · Source: NovaCopilot

Risk, sanction and outcome

  • Art. 34 · controller

    Risk: high · Sanction: administrative_fine, högst EUR 10 000 000 · Authority: Competent supervisory authority

    Decisions applying the provision: none in the register

    Full chain (JSON)

Outcomes are counted from stored judgments that cite the provision verbatim. Source: NovaCopilot

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Judgments applying this article

7 judgments in the register cite the article in their text. EU 1 · DE 6

Source: NovaCopilot

The text is quoted from the official source and is not legal advice. A national court reads the language version that binds in its jurisdiction.

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