The European Commission on Monday announced a new data transfer pact with the United States which seeks to end the legal uncertainties over thousands of companies that transfer personal data across the Atlantic into the States.
The move was met with immediate backlash from non-profit group noyb, led by privacy activist Max Schrems which said the pact would challenge the agreement.
The European Commission and the United States were in a constant struggle to reach a new agreement after Europe’s top court annulled the previous two pacts that underpinned the data transfer across the Atlantic for a variety of services including cloud infrastructure to payroll and banking.
The EU executives backed the pact saying the measures taken by United States ensured an adequate level of protection of Europe’s personal data that transferred across the Atlantic for commercial purposes.
New binding safeguards such as limiting US Intelligence Services’ access to EU data is “necessary and appropriate” and the set up of Data Protection Review Court for Europeans.
EU Justice Chief Didier Reynders commented that he was confident of fending off any legal charges. He also said, “The principles of the data privacy framework are solid and I am convinced that we have made significant progress which meets the requirements of the European Court of Justice case law.”
Meanwhile Schrems said that the latest revision was inadequate and in his statement he said, “Just announcing that something is ‘new’, ‘robust’ or ‘effective’ does not cut it before the Court of Justice. We would need changes in US surveillance law to make this work.”
Schrems also added, “We have various options for a challenge already in the drawer, although we are sick and tired of this legal ping-pong. We currently expect this to be back at the Court of Justice by the beginning of next year.”
