EU-US Privacy Shield – Open For Business

On 12 July 2016, the European Commission adopted the replacement for the EU-US Safe Harbor scheme – the so-called 'Privacy Shield'. This is the new, EU-approved mechanism for the transatlantic transfer of personal data. The Privacy Shield will enter into force immediately and companies will be able to self-certify with the US Department of Commerce from 1 August 2016. This post, the first in our series on the Privacy Shield, provides an overview of the new framework.

It has taken two and a half years of negotiations between the EU and the US to agree on a new framework for transatlantic data transfers. Following the publication of the draft text of the Privacy Shield adequacy decision and related annexes in February 2016, amendments were made to take into account concerns of the Article 29 Working Party, the collective group of EU data protection authorities ("DPAs"), and the European Data Protection Supervisor, both of whom had criticised perceived inconsistencies