Article 55 Compétence

This article establishes the territorial scope of each supervisory authority's competence.

As a companion to Article 56, which deals with cross-border processing and the "lead supervisory authority" mechanism, Article 55 sets the default rule: each supervisory authority operates within its own Member State.

It also carves out two notable exceptions to this general principle — one expanding competence in specific processing contexts, and one explicitly limiting it in relation to the judiciary.

Important points:

• Each supervisory authority is competent only within the territory of its own Member State.
• Where processing is carried out by public authorities or private bodies under Article 6(1)(c) or (e), the supervisory authority of that Member State is competent and the lead authority mechanism under Article 56 does not apply.
• Supervisory authorities have no competence to supervise courts when those courts are acting in their judicial capacity.