2026
The Belgian DPA publishes its Annual Report 2025
The Belgian Data Protection Authority (BE DPA) is today publishing its Annual Report 2025. The year 2025 was notably marked by the appointment of a new Executive Committee, a particular focus on data brokers, continued work on new European regulations, and several significant decisions by the Litigation Chamber.
Changes at the DPA
The year 2025 saw the appointment of a new Executive Committee following the expiry of the mandates of the previous members, who had been appointed in 2019. The five new directors took the oath of office on 29 April 2025.
The new directors began work on defining the strategic direction the BE DPA should take over the next three years. These strategic priorities were consolidated in the Strategic Plan 2026–2028, which was submitted for public consultation at the end of 2025. The final version was published in 2026.
The BE DPA also continued the rollout of its new Document Management System (DMS), designed to improve both the efficiency of case handling and the user experience. In 2025, two key services became available on this new platform: DPO management and personal data breach notification. The deployment of the platform's remaining functionalities is still ongoing.
The BE DPA also redesigned its website "Je décide / Ik beslis", aimed at young people as well as parents and teachers, to better meet the needs and expectations of teenagers.
Key Cases
In 2025, the BE DPA paid particular attention to the activities of data brokers, that collect, enrich and commercialise personal data on a large scale. In addition to issuing substantive decisions such as the Infobel decision and the follow-up decision concerning Freedelity, the BE DPA also carried out awareness-raising activities on this topic.
With regard to artificial intelligence, the Litigation Chamber issued a reprimand to the City of Antwerp in relation to a pilot project involving smart noise monitoring using voiceprints. After the BE DPA's Inspection Service had ordered the City of Antwerp to temporarily suspend the project, the Litigation Chamber assessed it and concluded that the processing of these sensitive data lacked a valid legal basis. It therefore ordered the deletion of the data that had been collected.
In terms of opinions, the Authorisation and Opinions Service, among other activities, advised legislators on the important safeguards required for large-scale consumer data processing, including in relation to smart electricity meters in Wallonia and Brussels, as well as the proposed European "Chat Control" Regulation aimed at monitoring communications to detect child sexual abuse material.
As part of its awareness-raising activities, the Front Line Service, through its project "Je décide / Ik beslis", developed an educational toolkit in collaboration with the High Council for Media Education (CSEM) and RTBF to raise awareness among French-speaking young people about personal data protection, following on from the Edubox project developed the previous year for Dutch-speaking students.
Key Figures
The BE DPA continued to carry out its statutory tasks throughout 2025.
The Front Line Service received 3.034 written requests for information, compared with 3051 in 2024. It also handled 748 phone calls, compared with 933 in 2024.
In 2025, the BE DPA received 1.394 complaints (compared with 837 in 2024, an increase of 67%) and opened 263 mediation cases (compared with 243 in 2024, an increase of 8%).
A total of 1.216 personal data breaches were notified to the BE DPA in 2025, compared with 1455 in 2024 (- 16%).
The Inspection Service initiated 117 investigations in 2025, compared with 157 in 2024 (- 25%).
The Litigation Chamber adopted 214 decisions in 2025, compared with 173 in 2024 (+ 23%).
Finally, the Authorisation and Opinions Service received 222 requests for opinions on draft legislative and regulatory texts in 2025.
Further information and detailed statistics are available in the full Annual Report 2025 (available in French and Dutch).