Department Of Commerce Issues White Paper On E.U.-U.S. Data Transfers Following Schrems II

The United States Department of Commerce issued recently a white paper addressing international data transfers pursuant to Standard Contractual Clauses (SCCs) following the Court of Justice of the European Union's (CJEU) invalidation of the Privacy Shield this past July. See Data Protection Commissioner v. Facebook Ireland and Maximillian Schrems, Case C-311/18 (Schrems II).

Recall that one of the reasons the CJEU found the Privacy Shield invalid was because U.S surveillance laws provide the government with access to personal data that is inconsistent with the privacy protections of the GDPR. This decision disrupted the transfer of personal data from the E.U. to the U.S. pursuant to the Privacy Shield and was a major blow to companies conducting such transfers.