When a Lead Supervisory Authority (LSA) issues a draft decision, it consults the Concerned Supervisory Authorities (CSAs), which can express their disagreement with the draft decision by submitting relevant and reasoned objections (RRO) within a period of four weeks (Art. 60.4 GDPR).
When none of the CSAs objects, the LSA may proceed to adopt the decision.
In case at least one of the CSAs has expressed an RRO, and if the LSA intends to follow the objection, it shall submit a revised draft decision to all the CSAs. The CSAs then have a period of two weeks (Art. 60.5 GDPR) to express their RROs to the revised draft decision.
However, if the LSA does not intend to follow the objection(s), since no consensus can be reached, the consistency mechanism is triggered. This means that the LSA is obliged to refer the case to the European Data Protection Board (EDPB) and the dispute resolution role of the EDPB is activated (Art. 65.1(a) GDPR).
The dispute resolution mechanism can be triggered in two further cases:
- there is a disagreement as to which authority is the LSA (Art. 65.1(b) GDPR);
- an SA does not seek the opinion of the EDPB as obliged under Art. 64.1 GDPR or does not follow such an opinion (Art. 64.1 - 2 GDPR) (Art. 65.1(c) GDPR).