GDPR Article 42 — Certification

What this control requires

Promote voluntary, transparent data protection certification mechanisms, seals, and marks to demonstrate GDPR compliance, considering SMEs. Certifications, issued for up to three years by accredited bodies or authorities, ensure safeguards for data transfers and compliance, with public registration. This control addresses Certification Process.

In plain English

Promote voluntary, transparent data protection certification mechanisms, seals, and marks to demonstrate GDPR compliance, considering SMEs. In practice, this means you can prove you process controller-level controls on a defined cadence.

Why it matters

GDPR administrative fines reach the greater of €20 million or 4% of global annual turnover. The European Data Protection Board (EDPB) coordinates supervisory-authority enforcement across the EU/EEA, and DPAs publish enforcement decisions citing specific Articles.

What an auditor looks for

A DPA or privacy auditor expects: a Records of Processing Activities (RoPA) entry, a documented lawful basis, evidence the Article's data-subject right is operationalised end-to-end, a named DPO contact (where required), and Article 30 records that match what the front-end actually does.

Within Chapter IV: Controller and Processor, the assessor will trace your implementation back to the catalogue reference (Article Article 42) and look for objective evidence on the latest two assessment cycles.

How to implement

Policy Management

Docs. Keep each policy in version-controlled Markdown alongside the code that implements it; ship a signed PDF snapshot at each annual review and link the SHA into the SoA.

Operational checklist

• Process. Document the trigger, the owner and the cadence.
• Transparent. Document the trigger, the owner and the cadence.
• Data. Document the trigger, the owner and the cadence.
• Processor. Document the trigger, the owner and the cadence.
• Certification. Document the trigger, the owner and the cadence.
• Scope: controller, transfers, certifications.

Evidence to collect

• Policy Document. A signed and version-controlled policy / standard / procedure document.

Signed policy or standard documents the safeguard. Focus: Certification.

Common pitfalls

• Policies that no engineer has read; the version in Confluence drifts from the version that's actually being enforced.

How it maps to other frameworks

Computed from shared tags, control component and key-operation subjects — handy when you are reconciling controls across an audit.

• ISO/IEC 27701:2025 A.1.2.8 — Joint PII controller
• CIS Controls v8 2.6 — Allowlist Authorized Libraries
• ISO/IEC 27001:2022 A.5.5 — Contact with authorities
• SOC 2 (2017 TSC) CC2.3 — External Communication on Internal Control Matters

Related controls in GDPR

• Article Article 43 — Certification bodies
• Article Article 24 — Responsibility of the controller
• Article Article 29 — Processing under the authority of the controller or processor
• Article Article 40 — Codes of conduct
• Article Article 31 — Cooperation with the supervisory authority
• Article Article 30 — Records of processing activities

References

• European Union — GDPR
• Catalogue identifier: Article Article 42

Topics: governance riskpolicy management