Top EU Court Strikes Down Popular Data Transfer Tool

Lisa Peets spoke with Law360 about European Court of Justice’s invalidation of the EU-U.S. Privacy Shield. Ms. Peets, who represented the Software Alliance, says the decision to reject the Privacy Shield without holding arguments on the merits of the tool — an issue that wasn't directly before the high court in this dispute — was “disappointing to many.”

She adds that upholding the contractual clauses will be a “huge relief to companies across Europe.” She notes, “Data flows between Europe and the United States are an integral part of the European economy and of the day-to-day lives of millions of European consumers, and the [standard contractual clauses] are the backbone for many of those data transfers.”