Policy Observatory

On 6 October 2015, the European Court of Justice (ECJ) invalidated the Safe Harbor, the agreement concluded in 2000 with the USA in order to give a legal framework to data transfers between the European Union and the USA. The W29, a working group bringing together all Member States' national data protection authorities, waited until the end of January for the European Commission to draft a new agreement taking into account the requirements of the ECJ. This agreement called "Privacy Shield" was announced on 2 February but only contains vague promises.

An Irish privacy organization is challenging the EU-US framework for transferring personal data, the "Privacy Shield," in the European high court. This challenge follows a decision last year invalidating the previous framework, "Safe Harbor." In that case, the Court of Justice for the European Union concluded Personal data transferred to the United States lacks adequate legal protection.

A coalition of European and global civil society organisations signs a letter asking to suspend the Privacy Shield, the arrangement enabling the transfer of personal data between the US and the EU. These organisations consider that the US do not currently give sufficient safeguards for ensuring the data protection of Europeans. This arrangement is also currently challenged before the European Court of Justice by Digital Rights Ireland and by the Exégètes Amateur 1.

On 6 April 2017, the European Parliament (EP) voted a motion for a resolution on the adequacy of the protection afforded by the EU-US Privacy Shield. The scheme gives the United States a unique arrangement for the transfer of personal data from the European Union to the United States.

The Irish High Court refers Facebook privacy case to the Court of Justice of the European Unionin order to determine the legal status of data transfers under Standard Contractual Clauses. Therefore, Facebook could face questions from the CJEU about the validity of the model clauses it uses to transfer data outside of the 28-member-state bloc.

The Article 29 Working Party, an expert group of European privacy officials, is pressing the European Commission to closely evaluate the EU-US Privacy Shield, a framework permitting the flow of European consumers' personal data to the United States.