EU High Court Invalidates Major EU-U.S. Data Transfer Program
On July 16, 2020, the European Court of Justice struck down an agreement known as the “Privacy Shield” that is utilized by thousands of companies to transfer data from the European Union to the United States in compliance with the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation. In its decision, the EU’s top court concluded that the Privacy Shield pact failed to adequately protect the privacy concerns of EU citizens, due to the potential for U.S. authorities to intercept transferred data. However, the court declined to invalidate Standard Contractual Clauses, an alternate mechanism that many U.S. companies use to transfer data out of the EU.