On 29 February the European Commission released its draft adequacy decision about the proposed Privacy Shield, which is intended to replace the invalidated EU-US Safe Harbor. While Microsoft stated on April 11 that they “pledged to sign up for the Privacy Shield,” the European authorities have so far been much more skeptical.
As we have noted previously, in the wake of the ECJ’s decision that undid the US-EU Safe Harbor, we were told that there would be no enforcement of the EU Directive until after January 31, to allow the US and EU to hammer out a new regime. However, Isabelle Falque-Perrotin, the chair of the EU’s Article 29 Working Party, has stated that the next meeting of the Working Party will take place on February 2. … More
Today, the Article 29 Working Party (the advisory body on data protection and privacy composed of representatives from the national data protection authorities of all EU Member States) was to meet in Brussels to discuss, amongst other things, the consequences of the European Court of Justice ruling of 6 October 2015 in the Maximilian Schrems case, with EU-US data flow at the top of its agenda.
However,… More
Hosted by Foley Hoag LLP and UK Trade & Investment, The British Consulate General in Boston
On October 6, 2015, the European Court of Justice issued a landmark decision invalidating the US-EU Safe Harbor system. In practice, this means that US organizations can no longer rely on the Safe Harbor system to permit the transfer of personal data from the European Union to the US consistent with Directive 95/46/EC.… More
The European Court of Justice has just issued a decision (ECJ 6 October 2015 Case C-362/14, Maximillian Schrems v. Data Protection Commissioner) that invalidates the so-called US-EU “Safe Harbor” system. Suddenly, what 3,500 U.S. Companies (including some of the largest companies in the world) have been doing with personal data now potentially becomes illegal.
What is the background to this decision?
In 1995,… More
By now, you have no doubt heard that the European Union’s highest court today invalidated the U.S.-EU Safe Harbor Program. The European Court of Justice overturned the European Commission’s 15 year old decision finding that the privacy principles of the U.S.-EU Safe Harbor provide an adequate level of protection of the data of EU citizens. Among other things, the court cited concerns that the data may be subject to U.S.… More