The Commission’s draft EU-US Privacy Shield adequacy decision: A Shield for Transatlantic Privacy or Nothing New under the Sun?

On 6 October 2015, in its judgment in Schrems, the CJEU invalidated the European Commission’s decision finding that the US ensured an adequate level of protection for the transfer of personal data under the Safe Harbour framework on the basis that US mass electronic surveillance violated the essence of the fundamental right to privacy guaranteed in Article 7 EUCFR and the right to effective judicial protection, enshrined in Article 47 EUCFR (for an analysis of the judgment, see here).

On 2 February 2016, the Commission announced that a political agreement was reached on a new framework for transatlantic data flows, the EU-US Privacy Shield, which will replace the annulled Safe Harbour.

• Primary Source

ESO: Background information: Restoring trust in transatlantic data flows through strong safeguards: European Commission presents EU-U.S. Privacy Shield http://www.europeansources.info/record/press-release-restoring-trust-in-transatlantic-data-flows-through-strong-safeguards-european-commission-presents-eu-u-s-privacy-shield/

Politico, 12.04.16: European enforcers not sold on ‘privacy shield’ http://www.politico.eu/article/european-enforcers-not-sold-on-privacy-shield/

---