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EU-U.S. Privacy Shield Invalidated: Does Your Company Have a Plan B?

July 17, 2020 Alerts and Newsletters

On Thursday, July 16, 2020, the Court of Justice of the European Union (“CJEU”) invalidated the EU-U.S. Privacy Shield (“Privacy Shield”) in Data Protection Commissioner v. Facebook Ireland and Maximillian Schrems (Case C-311/18). The CJEU’s ruling voiced concern that the Privacy Shield does not adequately protect EU data subjects’ personal data from U.S. surveillance in the same way their data is protected in the EU by the General Data Protection Regulation (Regulation (EU) 2016/679) (“GDPR”).

Although the Privacy Shield was invalidated, the CJEU upheld the validity of the standard contractual clauses (“SCCs”). However, the CJEU stated that the relevant supervisory authority must suspend or prohibit a transfer of personal data to a third country if it determines that the SCCs are not or cannot be complied with in that country and that the protection of the personal data transferred required by the GDPR cannot be ensured by other means (assuming, that is, that the data exporter has not already suspended or put an end to the transfer).

This judgment presents new challenges for U.S. companies that are certified under the Privacy Shield and have been using the Privacy Shield as the legal basis for transferring personal data from the EU into the U.S. The U.S. Department of State issued a statement today indicating that it is reviewing this outcome and the “consequences and implications for more than 5,300 European and U.S. companies, representing millions of transatlantic jobs and over $7.1 trillion in commercial transactions.” The Department acknowledged that uninterrupted data flows are essential to economic growth and innovation, particularly now as both the U.S. and EU economies recover from the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, and stated that it will continue to work closely with the EU to find a mechanism to enable the essential unimpeded commercial transfer of data from the EU to the U.S.

Our team at Verrill is advising these U.S. companies, and others that are impacted in a less direct manner, on how to address this most recent change under EU data protection laws. For questions on this new decision or for assistance in dealing with the invalidation of the Privacy Shield, please contact your regular Verrill attorney.