The Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) held in its
decision of 6 October that the U.S./EU Safe Harbor Agreement (the
Agreement) does not provide an adequate level of data
protection and it is therefore invalidated. The decision affects
around 5000 U.S. companies that are self-certified under the
Agreement, and their European partners and customers that rely on
the Agreement for data transfers into the U.S. The decision stands
against the background of the wellknown dispute between Maximilian
Schrems and the Ireland's Data Protection Authority
(DPA). Mr Schrems, a Facebook user since 2008, requested
the DPA to prohibit the transfer of his personal data from Facebook
Ireland to Facebook in the U.S.; arguing that U.S. does not provide
adequate protection of his personal data, in view of the U.S.
surveillance activities that came into light in recent years, in
particular through facts revealed by Edward Snowden. The DPA
rejected the complaint on the grounds that
