EU-US Safe Harbor Program and the Court of Justice of the EU’s Decision — Protect Your Business!

By Cynthia J. Larose

Since the Snowden revelations, trouble has been brewing for the EU-US Safe Harbor program and companies which utilize this program to make transfers of personal information from the EU to the US legal under EU privacy laws. On October 6, the uncertainty generated last week by Advocate General Yves Bot’s opinion invalidating Safe Harbor will come to an end as the European Court of Justice (ECJ) will release its decision in the Schrems Safe Harbor case. It is highly unusual for the ECJ to issue a decision so quickly after publication of the Advocate General’s opinion on a case. However, the ECJ seems to be expediting its decision process. (See the Wall Street Journal’s summary of the usual process here.)

What will be the implications of this decision? How can you, as a company, navigate these waters?

Last week in this space, we advised companies who rely on Safe Harbor for their EEA-to-US data transfers to get a contingency plan in place without delay. This week, we are urging the same and providing this Emergency Webinar to better assist.

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Cynthia J. Larose

Member / Chair, Privacy & Cybersecurity Practice

Cynthia J. Larose is Chair of the firm's Privacy & Cybersecurity Practice, a Certified Information Privacy Professional-US (CIPP-US), and a Certified Information Privacy Professional-Europe (CIPP-E). She works with clients in various industries to develop comprehensive information security programs on the front end, and provides timely counsel when it becomes necessary to respond to a data breach.