The Article 29 Working Party Releases Guidelines On BCRs Under The GDPR

On December 6, 2017, the European Union's Article 29 Working Party released two sets of guidelines on Binding Corporate Rules ("BCRs") it had adopted a week earlier. BCRs are internal rules that define a group of companies' global policy regarding the processing and international transfers of personal data. Based on the approval by the EU Supervisory Authorities, companies can use BCRs to transfer personal data to group entities located outside the EU. The two documents replace the earlier Working Papers 153 and 195.

How Does This Help Companies?

The Article 29 Working Party further clarifies the necessary content of BCRs as already stated in Article 47 of the GDPR to facilitate BCRs applications. The guidelines consist in tables that distinguish what must be included in the text of the BCRs themselves from what must be submitted to the competent Supervisory Authority in the context of a BCRs application (i.e. the list of entities bound by BCRs, how the rules are