On 13 December 2022, the European Commission published its draft adequacy decision for EU-U.S. data transfers. The draft decision follows the EU-U.S. announcement of an agreement on a new EU-U.S. Data Privacy Framework (“DPF”) in March 2022 as well as the Executive Order on Enhancing Safeguards for United States Signals Intelligence Activities (“Executive Order”) signed by President Biden in October 2022, which aimed at implementing the commitments of the U.S. under the DPF.
If the draft adequacy decision is adopted, the DPF will be the successor to the EU-U.S. Privacy Shield, which was based on an adequacy decision of the European Commission declared invalid under the General Data Protection Regulation (“GDPR”) by the Court of Justice of the European Union (“CJEU”) in its Schrems II decision in July 2020. The DPF is expected to tackle the concerns of the CJEU with respect to transfers of EU personal data to the U.S.