China Relaxes Measures On Cross-border Data Transfers From China

The Cyberspace Administration of China (CAC) has released draft provisions which will relax the current requirements on cross border data transfers. The draft provisions set out exemptions from the need to comply with one of the three transfer mechanisms that would otherwise be required, namely (i) CAC assessment (ii) China's standard contract or China standard contractual clauses (China SCCs) ; or (iii) certification. The consultation period for the draft provisions will end on 15 October 2023.

The draft provisions will immediately impact the on-going signing and filing of the China SCCs currently being undertaken by most organisations which do not need to go through the mandatory CAC security assessment. Given that the deadline for filing the China SCCs for existing cross-border data transfers is 30 November 2023, it is anticipated that the draft provisions are intended to take effect before then. This would relieve numerous organisations from having to file the