At the 1999 Helsinki Spring Conference, European data protection authorities agreed to hold a workshop at staff level to compare procedures for complaints-handling and for facilitating the handling of cross-border complaints. This workshop came to be known as the European Case Handling Workshop (ECHW) and stands as a sub group of the European Conference of Data Protection Authorities.

Usually taking place in the autumn, the ECHW aims to bring together caseworkers from the same group of European data protection authorities to discuss experiences and good practices on topics of a practical nature, such as:

• Topics on which the most complaints are received;
• Issues that the office is currently dealing with; and
• Sectors that the office most often receives complaints about; or is likely to receive complaints about in the future.