EU Regulators Express Their Take On Safe Harbor Ruling

The Article 29 Working Party (WP29) issued on 16 October 2015 what it called a "robust, collective and common position" on the consequences of the recent decision of the European Court of Justice that declared Safe Harbor mechanism for transfers of personal data to the US invalid. The WP29 suggested that the EU and the US reach agreement before the end of January 2016 on an appropriate "political, legal and technical solution" for data transfers to the US.

The WP29's statement follows in the aftermath of the European Court of Justice's decision in Maximillian Schrems v Data Protection Commissioner. Our Legal alert of 7 October 2015 discussed the ramifications of this judgment and suggested EU model contracts as a temporary and Binding Corporate Rules (BCR) as a more permanent basis for structural data transfers between the EU, the US and elsewhere. The WP29's statement confirms that both EU model contracts and Binding Corporate Rules can indeed continue to be used.