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ARTICLE · 09 DECEMBER 2020

European Commission Releases Draft Updated Standard Contractual Clauses

Reed Smith (Worldwide)
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On 12 November 2020, the European Commission released draft updated standard contractual clauses (SCCs) for consultation.

European UnionPrivacy
Philip Thomas
Philip Thomas
Roxana Burghel
Roxana Burghel
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On 12 November 2020, the European Commission released draft updated standard contractual clauses (SCCs) for consultation (available here).

The current SCCs were adopted by the Commission before the GDPR came into force. The CJEU's decision in the Schrems II case has given greater urgency to updating the current SCCs. Once approved, the new SCCs will repeal the current SCCs. Data controllers and processors alike will therefore need to re-paper their agreements.

The main changes introduced by the draft SCCs are summarised below.

Extra-territorial scope: The draft SCCs offers greater flexibility. Data exporters that are subject to the GDPR but not established in the EEA may now rely on and use the draft SCCs as a valid transfer mechanism.

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