On January 23rd 2019, the European Commission adopted its adequacy decision in relation to the export of personal data from the European Union (EU) to Japan. Concurrently, Japan has adopted an equivalent decision in relation to the
On January 10, 2017, the EU Commission published a package of documents on the EU’s data economy strategy, including e-privacy, data protection and the “European Data Economy.” The Commission documents, published in the context of the Commission’s digital single market (“DSM”) initiative announced in May 2015, illustrate again the strong links between the EU’s digital regulatory strategy, data protection, intellectual property and antitrust policy, notably including the Commission’s preliminary report on its sector inquiry on e-commerce, also launched in May 2015.
On July 8, 2016, European Member States approved the proposed EU-US Privacy Shield framework, with four Member States – Austria, Bulgaria, Croatia, and Slovenia – reportedly abstaining. Before the framework can be implemented, formal approval by the European Commission is
The United States and the European Union reportedly have agreed on changes to the EU-US Privacy Shield. A revised agreement has been sent to EU Member States, and a vote is expected to be held early next month, in early
On February 29, 2016, the European Commission published the documents comprising the new EU-U.S. Privacy Shield, the adoption of which we previously covered on our blog. In the Commission’s opinion, the new framework reflects the requirements set forth by the European Court of Justice in the Schrems ruling, which invalidated the U.S.-EU Safe Harbor framework. The Commission’s proposed adequacy decision holds that “the United States ensures an adequate level of protection for personal data transferred from the Union to organisations in the United States under the EU-US Privacy Shield”.
It is being reported that the EU and the US have reached an agreement in principle on the revised cross-border data transfer framework, commonly referred to as Safe Harbor 2.0. Both sides expect further progress on the specifics in November of this year. Some of the thornier issues, however,regarding US surveillance activities, that are critical to addressing the concerns the ECJ raised in Schrems, are yet to be firmed up with verifiable compliance commitments.
The following is the statement of WP29 on the Schrems decision. It is a short opinion that we replicated here in full. We note that WP29 appears to suggest that model clauses and BCRs remain viable through at least January
As discussed in our post earlier, in today’s ruling on Case C-362/14 (the so-called “Schrems” case), the European Court of Justice (ECJ) invalidated the EU Commission’s “US Safe Harbor” decision with immediate effect. In the meantime, the EU Commission held a press conference discussing the impact of the judgement.