US-EU Inching Closer to New Privacy Shield Agreement

The U.S. and the E.U. have been struggling for years over data flow of E.U. residents to the United States.

Curiously, their big complaint is that the NSA is a spy agency and they intercept communications. The way the E.U. constructed GDPR, their intelligence agencies are exempt from complying with the law – but ours are not.

This has caused some challenges in crafting an agreement that the E.U. courts find acceptable.

Agreement after agreement has gone down in flames. Safe Harbor. Privacy Shield. Now companies have resorted to Standard Contract Clauses, which are problematic at best.

But the E.U. and the U.S. keep plugging away at a new agreement.

In four years, the Trump administration did nothing the resolve the problem. In part, I suspect, it is because big tech arguably has the most to gain. But as a result of that, tens of thousands of small companies wound up as collateral damage.

In light of the renewed cooperation as a result of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce is optimistic that an agreement will be reached soon, hopefully by the summer.

In addition to drawing a fine line between what the E.U. High Court wants and what the U.S. Constitution requires, negotiators also have to deal with E.U. standards on tech like for A.I. and data governance. These are much more restrictive than what the U.S. allows, which is pretty much the Wild West.

Still, there is reason for hope – stay tuned. Credit: Law 360

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