US Safe Harbor Regime Invalidated By Europe's Highest Court

The Court of Justice of the European Union ruled this morning that the Safe Harbor regime, which enables transatlantic data transfers from the European Union to the United States, is invalid, thereby giving each national supervisory authority the chance to revisit the question of whether the U. S. provides an adequate level of protection for EU citizens' data. A copy of the decision be found here.

A very quick summary of the case is at the end of this note for those who are interested in more detail.

Consequently, if your company relies on Safe Harbor as the exclusive basis for its transfer of personal data from the EU to the U.S., it may need to find another basis to legitimize the transfer as soon as possible. The primary options are: