GDPR Art. 34 EN
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Communication of a personal data breach to the data subject

Data Breaches Personal Data Notification Obligation
In force — consolidated2016-05-04 · CELEX 02016R0679-20160504 · ELI ↗
Version history 2
  • 2016-05-04in force CELEX 02016R0679-20160504
  • 2016-04-27 CELEX 32016R0679
  1. 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.

    Data Breaches Notification Obligation Personal Data 144
  2. 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).

    Data Breaches Notification Obligation Personal Data 17
  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:

    Personal Data 12
    1. 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;
      Data Breaches Notification Obligation Personal Data
    2. 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;
      Controllers
    3. 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. 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.

    Data Breaches Notification Obligation Personal Data 18

Enforcement

Cited in 68 fines totalling €84.0M

Top authority: 🇪🇺Polish National Personal Data Protection Office (UODO) (24) · median fine €26,350 · see all enforcement for Art. 34 →

Connections by provision

34(1) 21 Case Law 84 Enforcement 38 Guidance 1 Literature .md
Case Law 21
Amazon EU Sàrl, venant aux droits de Amazon Services Europe Sàrl v European Commission HelHO - HelHO:2026:8 TR v Land Hessen Safe Interenvios, SA v Liberbank, SA and Others BGH - VI ZR 97/22 ¶89 Amazon EU Sàrl, venant aux droits de Amazon Services Europe Sàrl v European Commission ¶9 BGH - VI ZR 97/22 ¶16 HelHO - HelHO:2026:8 +13 more
Enforcement 84
POLAND DPA: Insufficient fulfilment of data breach notification obligations National Prosecutor's Office: Insufficient legal basis for data processing mBank: Insufficient fulfilment of data breach notification obligations Healthcare facility: Insufficient technical and organisational measures to ensure information security Italian DPA: Municipality of Rieti breached GDPR by publishing 31,000 taxpayers' waste Santander Bank Polska S.A.: Insufficient fulfilment of data breach notification obligations Hospital: Insufficient fulfilment of data breach notification obligations District Court Krakow: Insufficient fulfilment of data breach notification obligations +76 more
Guidance 38
Guidelines 9/2022 on personal data breach notification under GDPR Guidelines 04/2026 on the application of the power to impose administrative fines in relation to other corrective powers under the GDPR EDPB-EDPS Joint opinion 2/2026 on the Proposal for a Regulation as regards the simplification of the digital legislative framework ( hier EDPB Annual Report 2021 Guidelines 03/2022 on Deceptive design patterns in social media platform interfaces: how to recognise and avoid them EDPB-EDPS Joint Opinion 03/2022 on the Proposal for a Regulation on the European Health Data Space Contribution of the EDPB to the evaluation of the GDPR under Article 97 +30 more
Literature 1
If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it? Ten improvements for the upcoming tenth anniversary of the General Data Protection Regulation
34(2) 8 Enforcement 9 Guidance .md
Enforcement 8
Polish Minister of Health: Insufficient technical and organisational measures to ensure information security Hôpital privé de la Loire: Insufficient technical and organisational measures to ensure information security Midlands Regional Hospital Tullamore, County Offaly: Insufficient technical and organisational measures to ensure information security UODO (Poland) - DKN.5131.27.2023 Vilnius District Municipality Administration: Insufficient technical and organisational measures to ensure information security ¶1 UODO (Poland) - DKN.5131.27.2023 ¶128 Hôpital privé de la Loire: Insufficient technical and organisational measures to ensure information security ¶162 Midlands Regional Hospital Tullamore, County Offaly: Insufficient technical and organisational measures to ensure information security
Guidance 9
EDPB Annual Report 2021 Guidelines 9/2022 on personal data breach notification under GDPR EDPB-EDPS Joint Opinion 02/2023 on the Proposal for a Regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council on the establishment of the digital euro hier Guidelines 03/2022 on Deceptive design patterns in social media platform interfaces: how to recognise and avoid them ¶89 Guidelines 03/2022 on Deceptive design patterns in social media platform interfaces: how to recognise and avoid them ¶85 Guidelines 9/2022 on personal data breach notification under GDPR ¶224 EDPB Annual Report 2021 +1 more
34(3) 4 Enforcement 8 Guidance .md
Enforcement 4
HDPA (Greece) - 12/2026 Midlands Regional Hospital Tullamore, County Offaly: Insufficient technical and organisational measures to ensure information security ¶164 Midlands Regional Hospital Tullamore, County Offaly: Insufficient technical and organisational measures to ensure information security ¶52 HDPA (Greece) - 12/2026
Guidance 8
Guidelines 9/2022 on personal data breach notification under GDPR Opinion 34/2025 on the draft decision of the Greek Supervisory Authority regarding C.E.C.L certification criteria EDPB-EDPS Joint Opinion 02/2023 on the Proposal for a Regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council on the establishment of the digital euro ¶35 Opinion 34/2025 on the draft decision of the Greek Supervisory Authority regarding C.E.C.L certification criteria ¶97 Guidelines 9/2022 on personal data breach notification under GDPR ¶99 Guidelines 9/2022 on personal data breach notification under GDPR ¶125 Guidelines 9/2022 on personal data breach notification under GDPR ¶73 EDPB-EDPS Joint Opinion 02/2023 on the Proposal for a Regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council on the establishment of the digital euro
34(3)(a) 2 Enforcement 1 Guidance .md
Enforcement 2
Midlands Regional Hospital Tullamore, County Offaly: Insufficient technical and organisational measures to ensure information security ¶165 Midlands Regional Hospital Tullamore, County Offaly: Insufficient technical and organisational measures to ensure information security
Guidance 1
hier
34(3)(b) 2 Enforcement .md
Enforcement 2
Midlands Regional Hospital Tullamore, County Offaly: Insufficient technical and organisational measures to ensure information security ¶166 Midlands Regional Hospital Tullamore, County Offaly: Insufficient technical and organisational measures to ensure information security
34(3)(c) 7 Enforcement 2 Guidance .md
Enforcement 7
Slovenian DPA: Controller breached Art. 32, 15 and 34 GDPR over data breach and access Midlands Regional Hospital Tullamore, County Offaly: Insufficient technical and organisational measures to ensure information security Italian DPA: Municipality of Rieti breached GDPR by publishing 31,000 taxpayers' waste ¶167 Midlands Regional Hospital Tullamore, County Offaly: Insufficient technical and organisational measures to ensure information security ¶86 Italian DPA: Municipality of Rieti breached GDPR by publishing 31,000 taxpayers' waste ¶124 Slovenian DPA: Controller breached Art. 32, 15 and 34 GDPR over data breach and access ¶38 Italian DPA: Municipality of Rieti breached GDPR by publishing 31,000 taxpayers' waste
Guidance 2
Guidelines 9/2022 on personal data breach notification under GDPR ¶88 Guidelines 9/2022 on personal data breach notification under GDPR
34(4) 10 Enforcement 8 Guidance .md
Enforcement 10
Permanent TSB: Insufficient technical and organisational measures to ensure information security UODO (Poland) - DKN.5131.27.2023 HDPA: Hellenic Open University found to have met breach notification duties after Italian DPA: Municipality of Rieti breached GDPR by publishing 31,000 taxpayers' waste ¶82 Italian DPA: Municipality of Rieti breached GDPR by publishing 31,000 taxpayers' waste ¶58 Italian DPA: Municipality of Rieti breached GDPR by publishing 31,000 taxpayers' waste ¶10 Italian DPA: Municipality of Rieti breached GDPR by publishing 31,000 taxpayers' waste ¶1 HDPA: Hellenic Open University found to have met breach notification duties after +2 more
Guidance 8
Guidelines 9/2022 on personal data breach notification under GDPR EDPB contribution to the EBA public consultation on draft regulatory technical standards on AML/CFT EDPB-EDPS Joint Opinion 02/2023 on the Proposal for a Regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council on the establishment of the digital euro EDPB contribution to the EBA public consultation on draft regulatory technical standards on AML/CFT ¶16 EDPB contribution to the EBA public consultation on draft regulatory technical standards on AML/CFT ¶74 EDPB-EDPS Joint Opinion 02/2023 on the Proposal for a Regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council on the establishment of the digital euro ¶99 Guidelines 9/2022 on personal data breach notification under GDPR ¶16 EDPB contribution to the EBA public consultation on draft regulatory technical standards on AML/CFT

Related across sources

Guidelines 9/2022 personal data breach notification under GDPR Guidelines ·EDPB Apr 4, 2023 Notification Obligation Data Breaches Personal Data
Guidelines 01/2021 Examples regarding Personal Data Breach Notification Guidelines ·EDPB Jan 3, 2022 Notification Obligation Data Breaches Personal Data
14/2021 Cypriot court backs DPA fines of €40,000 each on football clubs and €25,000 on processor On 26 July 2021, a journalist informed the Cypriot DPA of a security vulnerability on an online platform. This online platform hosted ticket purchase sites of two Cypriot football… Administrative Court of Cyprus May 12, 2026 Controllers Processors Supervisory Authorities
HDPA: Hellenic Open University found to have met breach notification duties after The Hellenic Open University (‘the controller’) submitted initial and supplementary notifications to the DPA after it was subject to a data breach resulting from a ransomware… 14/2026 ·Greece ·Art. 32, 33, 34 +1 Aug 19, 2026 Data Breaches Notification Obligation Integrity and Confidentiality Principle
SEK 1.8M IMY fines Miljödata SEK for Article 32 GDPR violation after ransomware breach of 2.2M An IT company that provides digital HR and occupational health services (Miljödata) detected a data breach in August 2025. In the breach, an external attacker had gained… Sweden ·Art. 32 Sep 22, 2026 Data Breaches Notification Obligation Controllers
€1,790 Mayor of the City and Municipality of Myślenice: Insufficient fulfilment of data breach notification obligations The Polish DPA (UODO) fined the Mayor of the City and Municipality of Myślenice €1,790 for insufficient fulfilment of personal data breach notification obligations under Article… Poland ·UODO ·Art. 33 Apr 30, 2026 Notification Obligation Data Breaches Supervisory Authorities