Introduction On June 4, 2021, the European Commission (the “EC”) abolished the old Standard Contractual Clauses (the “Old SCCs”) and published a new more flexible set of clauses (the “New SCCs”) for companies that wish to export personal data from the EU to elsewhere to rely on (for more information,…
On February 23, 2022, the European Commission published its proposal for a Regulation on Harmonized Rules on Fair Access to and Use of Data (“Data Act”), which focuses on data generated by Internet of Things (“IoT”) devices. The aim of the Data Act are to create a single market for…
On March 25, 2022, President Biden and the President of the European Commission (“EC”) von der Leyen announced that the US and EU reached an agreement in principle on a new Trans-Atlantic Data Privacy framework for transatlantic data flows (the New Framework). The parties now need to translate the consensus…
The International Data Transfer Agreement (“IDTA”), the long awaited mechanism for international transfers of personal data originating from the United Kingdom (“UK”), is now in force as of March 21, 2022, along with a separate addendum to the EU standard contractual clauses (“UK Addendum”). These transfer mechanisms were introduced by…
On 25 November 2021, the UK Information Commissioner’s Office (“ICO”) published an Opinion on Data Protection and Privacy Expectations for Online Advertising Proposals (“Opinion”). The Opinion emphasizes several data protection concerns relating to behavioural advertising and sets out overarching expectations that companies must meet to safeguard people’s privacy online when…
On 18 November 2021 the European Data Protection Board (“EDPB”) released its Guidelines 05/2021 on the Interplay between the application of Article 3 and the provisions on international transfers as per Chapter V of the GDPR (“Guidelines”) for public consultation. The Guidelines clarify one of the most vexing issues in…
The European Data Protection Board (EDPB) recently published minutes of its last plenary meeting held in September 2021, which (in paragraph 2) shed light on how the EDPB may address one of the biggest open issues regarding data transfers from Europe — whether under General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), Chapter V data…
The dust has settled on the new EU standard contractual clauses for cross-border data transfers (“New SCCs”), but confusion still reigns on how the New SCCs cover data transfers and what companies need to do to take advantage of them and comply with regulatory implementation guidance, including in relation to…
On 31 March 2021 the Dutch Data Protection Authority (DPA) announced that it fined the online reservation platform Booking.com €475,000 for failing to notify the DPA of a data breach within the timeline established in the GDPR. The decision signals European regulators’ growing scrutiny of how companies exercise discretion in incident response decisions….
The UK Information Commissioner’s Office (“ICO”) has published a letter sent to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. The ICO confirms that it is possible for SEC regulated UK firms to transfer personal data to the U.S. where the transfer is necessary for important reasons of public interest (the derogation in Article…