Today, 28 June 2021, the European Commission formally adopted two adequacy decisions with respect of transferring personal data from the European Economic Area (the “EEA”) to the United Kingdom (the “UK”): one under the EU General Data Protection Regulation and one under the EU Law Enforcement Directive. The two decisions come into force immediately.
Until the end of June 2021, organisations are allowed to freely transfer personal data from the EEA to the UK under the six-month “bridging period” agreed in the EU-UK Trade and Cooperation Agreement. However, the adoption of the two adequacy decisions now means that businesses can continue to freely transfer personal data from the EEA to the UK without having to implement any additional safeguards, such as entering into the new EU standard contractual clauses and carrying out local assessments for transfers to the UK.