Advisory Alert: Negotiators Announce “EU-U.S. Privacy Shield,” Replacing Safe Harbor for EU Data Transfers to the U.S.

The European Commission announced on February 2 that the European Union and the United States had resolved months of negotiations and approved the new EU-U.S. Privacy Shield, a replacement for the U.S.-EU Safe Harbor Framework, which thousands of American companies relied upon to receive personal data from European customers and suppliers but which was invalidated last October by the Court of Justice of the European Union (“CJEU”).

Though the Privacy Shield’s exact details have yet to be released, businesses that transfer personal data from Europe to the United States are cheering news of the accord. But the promise by EU data regulators to review the new trans-Atlantic data transfer agreement in detail – along with the legal challenges that are likely to be filed – means that the final scope and implementation of the Privacy Shield may be some months away.

Please read our full advisory here for additional details and further analysis of the EU-U.S. Privacy Shield.