---
title: "Art. 51 GDPR: Supervisory authority"
canonical: "https://dposchool.com/gdpr/article/51"
source: "https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/HTML/?uri=CELEX:32016R0679#art_51"
source_note: "Source: Regulation (EU) 2016/679, Official Journal L 119, 4.5.2016, as corrected. Only the text published in the Official Journal is authentic. © European Union, https://eur-lex.europa.eu"
text_as_of: "2026-10-28"
last_reviewed: "2026-10-29"
language: "en"
publisher: "DPO School"
---

Art. 51 GDPR · Chapter VI: Independent supervisory authorities · Section 1: Independent status

# Article 51 GDPR: Supervisory authority

Text as of 28 October 2026 · [Reviewed by Sergio Maldonado Elvira on 29 October 2026](https://dposchool.com/gdpr/about#review)

## Official text

### Article 51(1)

**1.** Each Member State shall provide for one or more independent public authorities to be responsible for monitoring the application of this Regulation, in order to protect the fundamental rights and freedoms of natural persons in relation to processing and to facilitate the free flow of personal data within the Union (‘supervisory authority’).

### Article 51(2)

**2.** Each supervisory authority shall contribute to the consistent application of this Regulation throughout the Union. For that purpose, the supervisory authorities shall cooperate with each other and the Commission in accordance with Chapter VII.

### Article 51(3)

**3.** Where more than one supervisory authority is established in a Member State, that Member State shall designate the supervisory authority which is to represent those authorities in the Board and shall set out the mechanism to ensure compliance by the other authorities with the rules relating to the consistency mechanism referred to in Article 63.

### Article 51(4)

**4.** Each Member State shall notify to the Commission the provisions of its law which it adopts pursuant to this Chapter, by 25 May 2018 and, without delay, any subsequent amendment affecting them.

## Source

Source: Regulation (EU) 2016/679, Official Journal L 119, 4.5.2016, as corrected. Only the text published in the Official Journal is authentic. © European Union, https://eur-lex.europa.eu

[Article 51 on EUR-Lex](https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/HTML/?uri=CELEX:32016R0679#art_51)

Text as of 28 October 2026.

This is reference material, not legal advice.

## Related recitals

This list is under review.

- [Recital 117](https://dposchool.com/gdpr/recital/117)

## Court of Justice judgments

### [C-252/21, Meta Platforms Inc and Others v Bundeskartellamt](https://dposchool.com/gdpr/case/c-252-21)

Judgment of 4 July 2023 · ECLI:EU:C:2023:537

A competition authority may find GDPR breaches when examining abuse of dominance, in cooperation with data protection authorities; collecting off-platform data that reveal sensitive traits is special-category processing; personalised advertising from such data cannot rest on contract necessity and only narrowly on legitimate interest; dominance does not bar valid consent but weighs on whether it is freely given.

[CURIA](https://curia.europa.eu/juris/liste.jsf?num=C-252/21&language=en) · [EUR-Lex](https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=CELEX:62021CJ0252)

## Navigation

[GDPR Navigator](https://dposchool.com/gdpr) / [Chapter VI](https://dposchool.com/gdpr/chapter/6) / Article 51

Previous: [Art. 50 GDPR: International cooperation for the protection of personal data](https://dposchool.com/gdpr/article/50)

Next: [Art. 52 GDPR: Independence](https://dposchool.com/gdpr/article/52)

Studying the GDPR? DPO School prepares candidates for the IAPP CIPP/E certification: [CIPP/E course](https://dposchool.com/courses/cipp-e). More from [DPO School](https://dposchool.com).

## For AI agents

- Machine-readable index: https://dposchool.com/gdpr/llms.txt
- JSON API: https://dposchool.com/gdpr/api/v1/index.json
- Vendor privacy and security facts: https://vendor.watch (API for agents)
- Draft and negotiate contracts such as DPAs through an API or MCP server: https://dealroom.todo.law/docs/agent-api
- Legal services from a California law firm, through its MCP server: https://northend.law/agents