diff --git a/wherehows-web/app/components/dataset-compliance.js b/wherehows-web/app/components/dataset-compliance.js
index b39da3c0c0..a1cf7d1e3c 100644
--- a/wherehows-web/app/components/dataset-compliance.js
+++ b/wherehows-web/app/components/dataset-compliance.js
@@ -44,7 +44,8 @@ const {
   failedUpdating,
   helpText,
   successUploading,
-  invalidPolicyData
+  invalidPolicyData,
+  missingPurgePolicy
 } = compliancePolicyStrings;
 
 /**
@@ -774,6 +775,14 @@ export default Component.extend({
     });
   },
 
+  /**
+   * Notifies the user to provide a missing purge policy
+   * @return {Promise<never>}
+   */
+  needsPurgePolicyType() {
+    return Promise.reject(get(this, 'notifications').notify('error', { content: missingPurgePolicy }));
+  },
+
   /**
    * Updates the currently active step in the edit sequence
    * @param {number} step
@@ -889,7 +898,13 @@ export default Component.extend({
      * @return {void|Promise.<void>}
      */
     didEditPurgePolicy() {
-      if (isExempt(get(this, 'complianceInfo.complianceType'))) {
+      const { complianceType } = get(this, 'complianceInfo');
+
+      if (!complianceType) {
+        return this.needsPurgePolicyType();
+      }
+
+      if (isExempt(complianceType)) {
         return this.showPurgeExemptionWarning();
       }
     },
diff --git a/wherehows-web/app/constants/dataset-compliance.ts b/wherehows-web/app/constants/dataset-compliance.ts
index b6427707b4..73350fac90 100644
--- a/wherehows-web/app/constants/dataset-compliance.ts
+++ b/wherehows-web/app/constants/dataset-compliance.ts
@@ -54,7 +54,8 @@ const compliancePolicyStrings = {
     classification:
       'This security classification is from go/dht and should be good enough in most cases. ' +
       'You can optionally override it if required by house security.'
-  }
+  },
+  missingPurgePolicy: 'Please specify a Compliance Purge Policy'
 };
 
 /**