EU Article 31 Committee Meeting at Least Twice More in June to Review Privacy Shield
The Article 31 Committee, an EU body comprised of member state representatives, meets Monday to discuss the proposed trans-Atlantic data transfer agreement and then again on June 29, a European Commission spokeswoman confirmed in an email. The committee has taken…
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longer than expected to review Privacy Shield, and its opinion does matter in the approval of the pact. It has been heavily criticized by other European entities -- including the Article 29 Working Party, which is comprised of national data protection authorities (see 1604130002), and European Data Protection Supervisor Giovanni Buttarelli (see 1605310017) -- for not providing enough protection for EU citizen data and judicial redress for Europeans. Privacy Shield, proposed earlier this year, would replace the 15-year-old safe harbor agreement that was nullified by the European Court of Justice in October. In the meantime, businesses have been relying on other data-transfer mechanisms, including binding corporate rules and model contract clauses, but the latter instrument has come under legal scrutiny (see 1606020018). The EC is expected to approve Privacy Shield if and when the Article 31 Committee signs off on it, but many observers expect the new agreement to be immediately challenged in court.