On March 25, U.S. President Joe Biden and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen announced that they had reached a tentative agreement to allow Europeans' personal data to be transferred and stored in the U.S. territory.

An earlier agreement - the so-called Privacy Shield - was declared invalid by the Court of Justice of the European Union in July 2020 (Schrems II judgment). Since then, the legal transfer of data (including employee data) to the U.S. has been complicated, requiring extensive agreements. 

The agreement, called the "Trans-Atlantic Data Privacy Framework," provides, among other things, new rules and binding safeguards that will limit the access of U.S. intelligence to Europeans' data, taking into account the criteria of necessity and proportionality. There will also be a new court - Data Protection Review Court. It will investigate complaints by EU citizens about the processing of their data in the U.S. U.S. companies that process such data, in turn, will be subject to new obligations.

The political agreement must now take the form of legislation.

Find more in the PRO HR April 2022.