KMK Law Corporate & Securities Blog

Recently, the European Union Court of Justice invalidated a Safe Harbor Framework (established in 2000), which thousands of companies relied upon to facilitate the transfer, processing and storage of data from the EU to the U.S.  The Court also empowered EU national authorities to investigate individual complaints regarding the transfer and storage of personal data outside the EU.

Some companies may have protective language in their contracts and others may have separately negotiated agreements (often known as Binding Corporate Rules), which offer some safeguards.  EU and U.S. authorities also are trying to negotiate a new agreement with safe harbor protections in light of this ruling, but those negotiations are going to take time.

Any company that processes and stores data from the EU, including customer and employee personal data, should be reviewing its contracts and procedures and monitoring these developments.