German Data Protection Authorities Limit Use Of Alternative Data Transfer Mechanisms In Light Of Safe Harbor Decision

In the weeks since the October 6, 2015, Court of Justice of the European Union decision ("CJEU Decision") that invalidated the EU-U.S. Safe Harbor framework, companies have been faced with the quandary of establishing legal alternatives for transferring personal data from Europe to the U.S. We have discussed alternative data transfer mechanisms such as standard contractual clauses (SCCs, also called model clauses) and binding corporate rules (BCRs). Both mechanisms were implicitly endorsed by the European Commission, first in an October 6 press release, and then in an October 16 statement by the European Comission Article 29 Working Party. Not all European countries, however, have taken this position.