EU Article 31 Committee Approves EU-U.S. Privacy Shield Program

On April 5, 2016, Wilson Elser released a client alert that outlined the details of the EU-U.S. Privacy Shield program, the proposed replacement for the Safe Harbor arrangement for transfers of EU citizens' private data to the United States. At the time, Privacy Shield was conceived to fill the gap in protocols following the overturning of the Safe Harbor arrangement by the decision of the European Court of Justice in Schrems v. Data Protection Commissioner. Now, following more than four months of uncertainty, on July 8, 2016, the EU Article 31 Committee approved the Privacy Shield program, with representatives of four countries abstaining. Soon after, on July 12, EU Justice Commissioner Věra Jourová and U.S. Commerce Secretary Penny Pritzker jointly announced the new program's formal adoption.