EU Seeking Comment On Revisions To Standard Contractual Clauses

One of the methods US and EU companies rely on most frequently for the transfer of personal data from the EU to the US are standard contractual clauses. For the method to be acceptable as a valid basis for transfer of personal information, one critical step is for companies to use the version of the clauses as approved by the EU Commission. This has causes some confusion and concern, as the clauses predate GDPR and thus do not include provisions related to that 2018 law. Another area of confusion has been the recent criticism of the clauses as a valid method -alone- for transferring personal data to certain jurisdictions, including the US. (See proposed supplemental protection measures proposed by the European Data Protection Board to address this latter issue, which we discussed recently.)