By Gail Crawford and Calum Docherty On October 3, 2017, the Irish High Court announced that it will make a reference to the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) for a preliminary ruling on the validity of the Standard Contractual Clauses, which allow companies in the European Economic Area (EEA) to transfer personal data … Continue Reading
By Gail Crawford and Ksenia Koroleva The Federal Law No. 87-FZ of May 1, 2017, on Amendments to the Federal Law on Information, Information Technologies, and Information Protection (the Law) came into force on July 1, 2017. The Law introduces the definition of an audiovisual service owner and regulates their activities, including imposing ownership restrictions. The Notion of … Continue Reading
By Gail Crawford, Ulrich Wuermeling, Calum Docherty The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR or Regulation) will become applicable in one year, as of May 25, 2018. A lot has happened since we set out the key provisions of the Regulation last year. As companies implement compliance programmes in efforts to protect data subjects and avoid … Continue Reading
By Ulrich Wuermeling Well ahead of the implementation deadline for the European General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), the German Parliament (Bundestag) passed a new Federal Data Protection Act (Bundesdatenschutzgesetz) on April 27, 2017. The Federal Council (Bundesrat) could confirm the Act before the summer, but may require further amendments. If the Parliament and the Council fail to … Continue Reading
By Ulrich Wuermeling On January 10, 2017, the European Commission proposed a new ePrivacy Regulation (Proposal). Compared to the internal draft that was leaked in December, the official Proposal has been substantially modified. However, the general approach taken by the European Commission has not changed. The Proposal includes provisions with a broad scope of application covering … Continue Reading
By Fiona Maclean & Calum Docherty The Article 29 Working Party (WP29) – the group that represents the data protection authorities of all EU Member States – has published guidance and FAQs on a number of issues under the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). Data Protection Officers (DPOs) (Guidance & FAQs) DPOs are the cornerstone … Continue Reading
By Ulrich Wuermeling An internal Commission draft of a new ePrivacy Regulation (Draft) has been leaked to the public. The Commission plans to propose it in early 2017, but the content of the Draft does not seem near a final proposal. It is either older or still needs some time to be finalized. The Draft … Continue Reading
By Gail Crawford and Ulrich Wuermeling On October 19, 2016, the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) issued a ruling on the question of whether IP addresses constitute personal data. The ruling has direct implications on the general question of when data can be regarded as anonymous and, thus, fall outside the scope of data … Continue Reading
By Gail Crawford and Ulrich Wuermeling As the whole world now knows, the UK voted to leave the European Union (EU) in its historic referendum on 23rd June by a vote of 51.9 percent in favour of “leave” to 48.1 in favour of “remain”. This blog focusses on how that decision will impact both UK … Continue Reading
By Gail Crawford and Lore Leitner Today, after more than four years of debate, the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR, or the Regulation) enters into force. The GDPR will introduce a rigorous, far-reaching privacy framework for businesses that operate, target customers or monitor individuals in the EU. The Regulation sets out a suite of new … Continue Reading
By Mikhail Turetsky, Ksenia Koroleva and Lore Leitner On July 13, 2015, the Russian President signed Federal Law No. 264-FZ (the Law), which introduced a range of amendments into Russian legislation (the Amendments). In particular, the principle of the “right to be forgotten”, a concept not previously recognized under Russian law came into effect on … Continue Reading
By Ulrich Wuermeling, Jennifer Archie & Lore Leitner On March 17, 2016, the Civil Liberties Committee convened to discuss whether the Privacy Shield framework that will replace Safe Harbor provides adequate protection to the data of EU citizens. A number of experts were questioned including: the US lead negotiator, the EU Data Protection Supervisor, members of the … Continue Reading
By Ulrich Wuermeling, Gail Crawford and Jennifer Archie Earlier this week, the European Commission announced that a “political” agreement has been reached on a new framework for data flows from the EU to the US. The announcement highlights a few changes from the old Safe Harbor regime, such as more direct and active oversight by US … Continue Reading
By Ulrich Wuermeling A political compromise has been reached on the new European Data Protection Regulation. On December 15, 2015, the negotiators in the so-called “informal trilogue” between the Council, the Parliament and the European Commission closed the final issues. Meanwhile, the Luxembourg Presidency informed the LIBE-Committee of the Parliament as well as the Permanent Representatives Committee … Continue Reading
By Gail Crawford and Andrea Stout On December 7th, members of the European Parliament (MEPs) and the Luxembourg Presidency of the EU Council of Ministers provisionally agreed to the text of the long awaited network and information security directive also known as the cybersecurity directive (Directive). While the text of the proposed Directive has yet … Continue Reading
By Ulrich Wuermeling Almost four years after the European Commission introduced their draft for a new European Data Protection Regulation, negotiators of the European Parliament and Council are close to agreeing on a compromise text, set for December 15, 2015. If the final negotiations in the so-called “informal trilogue” are successful, the legislative process can be formally … Continue Reading
By Ulrich Wuermeling On November 6, the European Commission issued a comprehensive Communication on the consequences of the Schrems Judgment of the Court of Justice of the European Union (ECJ). In the Communication, the Commission puts national data protection authorities in their place by stating that Model Contracts are a valid alternative measure to provide … Continue Reading
By Brian Meenagh On October 26, 2015, Raja Al Mazrouei, the Commissioner for Data Protection for the Dubai International Financial Centre (the DIFC), issued guidance on the adequacy of US Safe Harbor for the purpose of exporting personal data from the DIFC. The guidance is significant for organisations that transfer personal data from the DIFC to the … Continue Reading
By Ulrich Wuermeling On October 26, the European Commissioner Věra Jourová addressed the Parliament Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs to discuss the consequences of the Schrems Judgment of the Court of Justice of the European Union (ECJ). Jourová commented on the status of the negotiations with the US to find a new solution … Continue Reading
By Ulrich Wuermeling An early Position Paper of the German data protection authority of Schleswig-Holstein on the Schrems Judgment of the Court of Justice of the European Union (ECJ) gave little hope for practical alternatives to Safe Harbor. On October 26, all German data protection authorities published a more reasoned joint Statement that follows the … Continue Reading
By Gail Crawford, Ulrich Wuermeling and Jennifer Archie The so called Article 29 Working Party met on October 15, 2015 to discuss the consequences of the Schrems Judgment of the European Court of Justice (ECJ). On October 16, 2015, the Working Party published a Statement summarizing their initial conclusions. The Working Party includes representatives of … Continue Reading
By Jennifer Archie, Gail Crawford and Ulrich Wuermeling On October 6, the European Court of Justice ruled that Decision 2000/520 of the European Commission, which stated that Safe Harbor-certified US companies provide adequate protection for personal data transferred to them from the EU (the Safe Harbor Adequacy Decision), is invalid (Case C-362/14 – Maximillian Schrems … Continue Reading
By Ulrich Wuermeling On September 23, the European Court of Justice heard the case which will determine whether US companies can rely on Safe Harbor as a measure to provide adequate privacy protection for personal data imported from the European Union. As of today, more than 4000 US companies have notified the Department of Commerce … Continue Reading
This week the Court of Justice of the European Union (‘CJEU’) heard a case that could destabilise data flows between the US and EU under the EU-US Safe Harbor Decision. In Schrems v Data Protection Commissioner(C-362/14), the same court that last year approved the “right to be forgotten” online heard evidence about the adequacy of … Continue Reading
