The hybrid nature of horizontality in EU Data Protection Law: the Charter, the Regulation and the Court of Justice of the EU

Abstract

This article analyses the horizontal effect of the fundamental right to data protection enshrined in Article 8 of the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights. Moving beyond abstract doctrinal debates, it adopts a functional and institutional perspective grounded in the architecture of EU data protection law. It proposes a tripartite analytical framework – direct, indirect, and state-mediated effect – and argues that Article 8 synthesises these models within a structurally hybrid system of enforceability. This hybrid model is operationalised through the General Data Protection Regulation, which embeds fundamental rights in private relationships via legislative design, decentralised implementation, and regulatory oversight. The Court of Justice complements this model through purposive interpretation, affirming rights enforceability even in the absence of a general doctrine of horizontal effect. The article concludes that the horizontal application of Article 8 is not an exception to verticality but a structural necessity in a digital order increasingly shaped by private regulatory power.