BHD Governance provides independent authorised representative services for companies operating in regulated UK and EU markets.
The business is led by a qualified lawyer and specialist in privacy, AI governance, and digital regulation.
We focus on clarity, reliability, and legally robust communication.
Our service model is designed to support your compliance obligations while maintaining strict independence and confidentiality. We keep things simple for you, and communicate with you along the way.
We also separately offer specialist consulting & advisory services in relation to privacy compliance, AI governance and regulation, and digital commercial issues.
We work with clients from around the world, who have businesses that reach the EU and UK, even though they have no physical presence in those areas.
Legislation (like the UK GDPR, EU GDPR, the Digital Services Act and the EU AI Act) require these businesses to nominate an authorised representative to act on their behalf.
We deliver our services on a fixed annual-fee basis. If you have been referred to us by another professional services firm (e.g. your law firm, accounting firm, or other business), please let us know.
Absolutely.
BHD Governance regulatory acts as authorised representative for business groups with multiple legal entities, brands or platforms.
Each entity and platform is scoped explicitly to ensure regulatory clarity and predictable handling. All relevant registrations (e.g. with Digital Services Coordinators) are completed in full compliance with regulatory requirements.
We operate both in the UK and EU-wide, which means you can come to us for all your digital and online regulatory needs. Brexit has not impacted our operations.
Specifically, we operate two entities:
BHD Governance UK
BHD Governance EU
An Article 27 representative acts as a statutory point of contact for EU or UK data protection authorities and individuals, where a non-EU or non-UK organisation falls within scope of the GDPR or UK GDPR.
The role is limited to:
receiving regulatory and individual communications
holding certain mandatory records (such as the 'Record of Processing Activities')
forwarding communications to the organisation without undue delay
An Article 27 representative does not advise on compliance, respond to regulators on the organisation’s behalf, or manage data protection obligations unless separately engaged to do so.
In theory, yes. However, in practice, this often creates conflicts, role confusion, and regulatory risk.
Article 27 contemplates a representative who is:
clearly identifiable
independently reachable by regulators and individuals
not operationally embedded in the organisation’s compliance decision-making
Using advisers or commercial partners as representatives frequently blurs these lines. A dedicated, rep-only service helps preserve role separation and avoids regulators treating the representative contact as an advisory or customer support channel.
No. These roles are explicitly different under the Digital Services Act.
An Article 13 DSA representative:
acts as the legal point of contact for EU authorities and the European Commission
receives formal regulatory communications, orders, and notices
User complaints, platform notices, and operational contacts fall under separate DSA obligations (Articles 11, 12, etc.) and must be handled directly by the service provider.
BHD Governance does not operate user-facing complaint or notice-and-action channels.