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Safe Harbor European Court Data Protection Ruling

By Andre Bywater and Gayle McFarlane
November 02, 2015

On Oct. 6 of this year, the European Court of Justice (ECJ) gave a very important judgment about EU data protection law in the so-called Schrems case, where it ruled as follows:

  • The EU Safe Harbor regime is invalid; and,
  • National EU Member State data protection regulators have the power to investigate complaints about the adequacy of the level of protection of data transfers to the U.S., and to suspend data transfers if they conclude that the U.S. (or indeed any other jurisdiction outside the EEA) does not provide an adequate level of protection.

All U.S. businesses transferring personal data from the EU need to take note of this judgment and consider what to do as a result.

Background

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