On October 3, 2017, the High Court of Ireland issued its decision in Data Protection Commissioner vs Facebook and Schrems concerning the validity of the EU Standard Contractual Clauses (SCCs)—a mechanism used by a very large number of companies to transfer personal data outside of the European Union.
The Irish High Court referred this question to the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU). This is the second time that the CJEU has been asked to determine the validity of a data transfer mechanism. In 2015, the CJEU invalidated the EU-U.S. Safe Harbor Framework. If the CJEU invalidates the SCCs, thousands of companies that rely on this data transfer mechanism could be left without a legal basis for the data transfers on which their businesses rely.
Click here to read our complete WSGR Alert discussing the background of the court’s decision, today’s ruling, and next steps.