EU Data Protection: Article 29 Working Party Says Standard Contractual Clauses, Binding Corporate Rules Are Adequate - For Now

After the European Court of Justice ("ECJ") declared the 2000/520/EC Safe Harbor decision of the European Commission (the "Safe Harbor") to be invalid, there was considerable uncertainty as to whether alternative measures of protection to legalize the transfer of personal data from the EU to the U.S., such as Standard Contractual Clauses and Binding Corporate Rules, were available. The uncertainty was further fueled when one German State Data Protection Authority (Schleswig-Holstein) recently issued a statement that it considers data transfers on the basis of Standard Contractual Clauses to the U.S. to be no longer permitted. This statement came despite clear indications that the EU Commission and the Article 29 Working Party (the EU independent advisory body on data protection matters consisting of representatives from the national Data Protection Authorities, the European Data Protection Supervisor, and the European Commission) (the "Working Party") were expected to