Frequently Asked Questions

An EU Representative is a natural or legal person established in the EU who acts on behalf of a non-EU controller or processor under GDPR Article 27. They are your official point of contact for:

• EU supervisory authorities
• Individuals exercising their rights
• Formal compliance communications

The representative is your legal presence in the EU for Article 27 obligations.

Most likely, yes. If you meet any of these criteria:

• You offer goods or services to EU residents (even for free)
• You monitor the behavior of EU residents (analytics, tracking, profiling)
• You process personal data of EU-based individuals
• You do not have an established entity in the EU

GDPR Article 27 explicitly requires most non-EU companies in this situation to designate a representative. This is a legal mandate, not optional.

Non-compliance can have serious consequences:

• GDPR fines: Up to €20 million or 4% of global annual revenue
• Regulatory exposure: Formal investigations can begin from complaints
• Market access risk: Enterprise customers may block vendors with visible compliance gaps
• Legal action: EU authorities and consumers can pursue legal remedies
• Reputation: Significant damage to your brand's trustworthiness

No. One EU Representative covers all 27 EU member states. You designate a representative in one Member State and that designation is recognized across the EU/EEA.

This is one of the advantages of the EU's harmonized regulatory approach — one point of contact for the entire bloc.

We provide comprehensive representation services:

• Official designation: We become your named GDPR Article 27 representative
• Authority liaison: We handle all communications with EU regulatory bodies
• Documentation: We maintain required records and provide them to authorities on request
• Subject requests: We receive and forward data subject requests to you
• Incident response: We help coordinate responses to data breaches or complaints
• Regulatory updates: We keep you informed of relevant GDPR enforcement updates

Yes. We operate as an established EU legal entity with full legal capacity to act as a GDPR Article 27 representative.

Why this matters:

• Authorities need a real, reachable representative
• Data subjects must have a practical EU contact point
• Your contracts and privacy notices must name a legitimate EU entity

We can typically complete the setup within 24-48 hours of receiving your documentation. The process is:

1. You sign up and provide company information
2. We review and prepare designation documents
3. Both parties sign the representative agreement
4. You update your privacy policy/legal notices to name us
5. We notify relevant authorities if required

You're covered from day one of our engagement.

It depends on the structure:

• If your EU establishment already processes data on behalf of the parent company, you may not need a separate Article 27 representative for GDPR
• Many groups still choose an external representative to reduce operational and conflict risks
• Privacy notices and record-keeping still need to be consistent and audit-ready

We offer a free assessment to help you determine your exact obligations. Contact us to discuss your specific situation.

Authorities look at factual indicators that your business serves EU residents, such as:

• Shipping or service delivery to EU countries
• EU customers in your CRM or billing data
• Marketing activity reaching EU audiences
• Localized terms, currencies, or onboarding flows for EU users
• Tracking and analytics on EU visitors

Even a single EU customer can trigger obligations depending on your processing activities.

Not automatically. Article 27 is based on your processing context, not your headcount. Exemptions are narrow and usually require all of the following:

• Processing is genuinely occasional
• Processing is unlikely to create risk to rights and freedoms
• No large-scale processing of special categories of data

Most SaaS, ecommerce, and recurring-service models do not qualify for this exemption in practice.

Regulatory timelines depend on authority workload and case severity, but action can start quickly when:

• A data subject files a complaint
• A breach or incident becomes public
• Authorities perform a targeted inquiry

Having a representative already in place is the fastest way to reduce immediate exposure.

We offer two self-service plans designed for different needs:

Essential (€29/month, billed annually at €348): Full Article 27 representation across all 27 EU member states, annual regulatory digest, and 72-hour email support.

Business (€59/month, billed annually at €708): Everything in Essential, plus monthly regulatory updates, quarterly compliance briefings, 24-hour email support, and incident escalation coordination.

For larger organizations, we also offer Enterprise plans with dedicated account management and custom documentation. Contact us for details.

See our pricing page for a detailed comparison.

No. We offer upfront annual billing only. Payment is due once per year for the selected plan. This keeps pricing simple and aligned with our compliance service period.

You can cancel renewal at any time, and your service remains active through the end of your current annual term.

Payments are non-refundable and we do not provide prorated credits for partially used service periods.

Yes! We offer special pricing for:

• Early-stage startups: 20% discount for companies with less than $1M in funding
• Nonprofits: 25% discount for registered 501(c)(3) organizations
• Volume: Discounts for companies with multiple entities

Contact us to discuss your situation.

The difference is critical when regulators come knocking:

• Mailbox service: Provides a postal address, scans mail, and forwards it to you. No legal expertise, no authority engagement, no qualified responses.
• Legal EU representative (rep4eu): Licensed German attorneys who substantively respond to authority inquiries, conduct legal risk assessments, coordinate incident responses, and provide qualified triage of data subject requests.

When a data protection authority contacts your EU representative, they expect a qualified response — not a bounce-back. A mailbox can't defend your business.

GDPR doesn't require your representative to be a lawyer — but it's a significant advantage:

• Lawyers understand regulatory language and can respond substantively to authority inquiries
• Legal training means better risk assessment and incident coordination
• Attorney-run services provide qualified triage, not just mail forwarding
• When compliance issues escalate, you want legal expertise on your side from day one

At rep4eu, both co-founders are licensed German Rechtsanwälte with decades of data protection experience.

New EU regulations are expanding representative requirements beyond GDPR:

• Digital Services Act (DSA): Article 13 requires non-EU digital service providers to appoint an EU legal representative
• EU AI Act: Article 54 mandates non-EU AI providers to designate an authorised representative before placing AI systems on the EU market
• Swiss FADP: Article 14 introduces representative requirements similar to GDPR for non-Swiss controllers

As licensed attorneys, we stay current on these evolving requirements. Contact us to discuss multi-regulation coverage.