CJEU Invalidates EU-US Safe Harbor - What Does This Mean For You? Relax.

Christopher Cwalina is a Partner and Norma Krayem is a Senior Policy Advisor in the Washington D.C. office

Today, October 6, the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) decided to agree in large part with the Advocate General's recommendation in the matter Schrems v. Facebook (Ireland) and invalidated the U.S.-EU Safe Harbor mechanism for transferring data. In response, the U.S. Department of Commerce immediately issued a press release.

The U.S. and the EU have been working together on addressing key concerns raised by the EU, including 'initially' an umbrella agreement that would allow both regimes to exchange data in both criminal and terrorist investigations. One of the last remaining components that the EU wanted to see was judicial redress for its citizens in the U.S., which has been moving through Congress just in the last month. The decision by the CJEU will most certainly speed things up and there is no reason to panic or think that EU Data