[Gnso-ppsai-pdp-wg] Fwd: European Court of Justice Declares Safe Harbor Invalid!

[Phil Corwin]

Here is some additional information from this morning’s Politico Morning Tech newsletter:

MORNING BUZZ: EU SAFE HARBOR STRUCK DOWN - Europe's highest court struck down the "safe harbor" agreement between the U.S. and E.U. early this morning, a decision which could have an enormous impact on American tech companies and transatlantic data transfers.
The European Court of Justice decision (http://bit.ly/1KXvVs2 <http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=5f2d7ee373c6396a5a4540eb095f17eef18696bc488760fc3b62daf704439ace> ) means that U.S. businesses are going to have to find some other way to legally import Europeans' data, which could be a major headache for the estimated 4,000 companies that have relied on the agreement's protections while transferring customer and internal data between E.U. countries and the U.S.
"There is no mention in the court's initial statement of any grace period that would allow those firms to establish their new arrangements before safe harbor ceases to be valid," writes ( http://politico.pro/1JPFYvm<http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=5f2d7ee373c6396a4a2137fc99f375f1c9c9ff5dc01e9a5a22f28a3a12b5ceac>) POLITICO Europe's David Meyer. "Nor is there mention of a grace period for the European Commission, which is currently renegotiating safe harbor with the U.S."
The decision wasn't totally unexpected after a top adviser to the court said last month that the agreement shouldn't continue given revelations via Edward Snowden that the U.S. gathered data from Internet companies. We're tracking.


Philip S. Corwin, Founding Principal
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From: gnso-ppsai-pdp-wg-bounces at icann.org [mailto:gnso-ppsai-pdp-wg-bounces at icann.org] On Behalf Of Stephanie Perrin
Sent: Tuesday, October 06, 2015 9:29 AM
To: gnso-ppsai-pdp-wg at icann.org
Subject: [Gnso-ppsai-pdp-wg] Fwd: European Court of Justice Declares Safe Harbor Invalid!

Doubtless folks will have seen this important ECJ decision already, but just in case I take the liberty of forwarding links to materials.  Certainly will have an impact.  Full decision link is in the press release.
Stephanie Perrin








Very, very good privacy decision from Europe's highest court.



(1) National privacy agencies retain authority to enforce EU fundamental rights

(2) The Safe Harbor arrangement in invalid for multiple reasons.



The practical impact will be to dramatically increase pressure on the US to update its privacy laws (ECPA, Privacy Act, FTC / DPA, FISA, etc).



Background on the EPIC website:



    https://epic.org/privacy/intl/schrems/default.html







[PRESS RELEASE EXCERPT]



http://curia.europa.eu/jcms/upload/docs/application/pdf/2015-10/cp150117en.pdf



The Court of Justice declares that the Commission’s US Safe Harbour Decision is invalid. Whilst the Court of Justice alone has jurisdiction to declare an EU act invalid, where a claim is lodged with the national supervisory authorities they may, even where the Commission has adopted a decision finding that a third country affords an adequate level of protection of personal data, examine whether the transfer of a person’s data to the third country complies with the requirements of the EU legislation on the protection of that data and, in the same way as the person concerned, bring the matter before the national courts, in order that the national courts make a reference for a preliminary ruling for the purpose of examination of that decision’s validity



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