On 6 October 2015, the Court of Justice of the European Union
handed down its preliminary ruling in the case of Maximillian
Schrems v Data Protection Commissioner Case C–362/14
throwing the legality of transferring data from within the European
Economic Area to companies based in the USA into question.
Since 2000, thousands of European companies have been involved
in the transfer of data to companies in the USA under the
provisions of the Safe Harbor framework. In 2000, the
European Commission (in EC Decision 2000/520/EC) established a
framework known as the 'Safe Harbor', whereby American
companies could self certify that they had sufficient procedures
and protections in place to ensure that any data transferred to
them from within the European Economic Area
("EAA") would have the benefit of
'adequate protections' to ensure that there was no breach
of the fundamental rights afforded to every EU citizen by The
Charter of Fundamental Rights of the EU.
