EU Commission To Update Decisions Authorising Personal Data Transfers To Certain Countries Outside The EU

Last Friday (6 November 2015) the EU Commission issued a communication on the transfer of personal data from the EU to the US under the Data Protection Directive following the judgment by the Court of Justice in the Schrems case.

In addition to providing some welcome support for the use of data transfer mechanisms such as Model Clauses and BCRs, the communication also contains an important statement from the Commission that it intends to update the decisions it has previously made authorising personal data transfers to certain countries outside of the EU.

The EU Commission has previously issued decisions confirming that certain countries outside of the EU offer an adequate level of protection to personal data and therefore transfers to those countries are not restricted. The countries that benefit from those decisions are: Andorra, Argentina, Canada, Faroe Islands, Guernsey, Isle of Man, Israel, Jersey, New Zealand, Switzerland and Uruguay. The Commission has