Summertime and the livin' is easy
Well, is it? This year we are collectively going through an exceptional summer: some countries are still struggling with very high COVID-19 infection rates. Life is not back to normal. Home office is still a fact for many of us. Group leisure activities are on hold or at least socially frowned upon. The well-deserved summer trip is cancelled. And in the middle of all that, the ECJ even put a "travel ban" on EU data. Again!
With its landmark decision on the legitimacy of international transfers of personal data (Rs C 311/18), the ECJ had to decide on those two GDPR safeguard mechanisms which were in practice most common: the EU-US-Privacy Shield and the European Commissions' Standard Contractual Clauses. The ECJ declared international data transfers based on the EU-US Privacy Shield invalid – effective immediately. Even though the Standard Contractual Clauses survived, the ECJ significantly increased the obligations on companies for such data transfers and demands additional safeguard measures. With this, the ECJ has shaken legitimacy for international data transfers once again. In practice, however, such transfers have become an indispensable part of our daily lives.
If you are interested in further details about the ECJ decision, check out the article by our colleague Günther Leissler.
Practical tips on how to react to this decision can be found in the pdf.
The content of this article is intended to provide a general guide to the subject matter. Specialist advice should be sought about your specific circumstances.
