US–EU Safe Harbor – Struck Down!

1. CJEU finds Safe Harbor Invalid

In a landmark ruling delivered today, Europe's highest court, the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) declared that the EU Commission's US - EU Safe Harbour regime is invalid. Now over 4400 US entities that rely on Safe Harbor and their millions of EU based customers, partners and affiliates face the prospect of personal data transfers between them being unlawful.

You can read about the background to the decision and commentary on the CJEU ruling towards the end of this alert. However, important commercial implications arising from the decision and what businesses should be thinking about now are discussed directly below.

2. What now?