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 June 6, 2016, Johannes Caspar – the Hamburg Commissioner for Data Protection – announced that the Hamburg Data Protection Authority (“DPA”) fined three companies for relying on the invalidated Safe Harbor framework to transfer data from the European Union to the companies’ operations in the United States. The DPA imposed the fines on Adobe, Punica and Unilever, in the amounts of 8,000, 9,000 and 11,000 Euro, respectively.
Since the invalidation of the Safe Harbor framework by the Court of Justice of the European Union (“CJEU”) in October 2015, German DPAs have taken an active role in questioning cross-border data transfer mechanisms, including the validity of the Standard Contractual Clauses and the Binding Corporate Rules, neither of which the CJEU addressed in the Safe Harbor Schrems decision. As part of this effort, the Hamburg DPA made inquiries of 38 global companies that had previously relied on the Safe Harbor framework and have operations in Hamburg to determine whether the companies had updated their cross-border data transfer practices to reflect the invalidation of Safe Harbor. This inquiry has, in turn, resulted in the enforcement action against the three companies.
On May 25, 2016, Austrian law student Max Schrems issued a press release stating that he has been informed that the Irish Data Protection Commissioner (DPC) is planning to refer a question to the Court of Justice of
Data privacy partners at Norton Rose Fulbright invite you to join them on Thursday, April 21 for a discussion on the EU-US Privacy Shield and the impact of the Article 29 Working Party’s formal opinion on the adequacy of the Privacy Shield. The WP29’s formal opinion is expected on April 12th or April 13th.
The discussion will be led by Boris Segalis, co-chair of Norton Rose Fulbright’s Data Protection, Privacy and Cybersecurity practice in the US, Marcus Evans, data privacy partner in Norton Rose Fulbright’s London office and Jay Modrall, anti-trust and competition partner in Norton Rose Fulbright’s Brussels office.
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”.