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A threatened Schrems III case after the publication of the draft adequacy decision on data transfers to the US opens questions about whether this battle has actual winners.
On December 13, 2022, the European Commission published the draft adequacy decision on data transfers between the EU and the US, which is the first step towards the final adoption of the decision following the US executive order.
Max Schrems’ reaction to the draft adequacy decision on EU-US data transfer was in line with expectations. The well-known privacy activist, known for his legal battles against Facebook and other American tech giants, stated that he plans to carefully analyze the decision in the coming days. He also expressed skepticism about the decision’s ability to withstand an appeal to the Court of Justice, citing that it is based on a well-known Executive Order.
Last week’s NOYB newsletter raised the question of whether there will be a Schrems III, continuing the nearly decade-long chess game between Schrems and U.S. and European authorities. However, some have questioned whether this game is actually in the interest of individuals. The European economy has struggled to offer the same level of services as American companies, and the Schrems II case has generated high compliance costs for businesses that have ultimately been passed on to consumers and workers.
The situation is further complicated by the actions of some European privacy authorities who fail to take into account the actual risks in the performance of Transfer Impact Assessments (TIAs) and do not issue high GDPR fines for non-compliance on data transfers due to the sensitivity of the matter.
This scenario creates a short circuit that leaves individuals and companies in limbo and fuels a concept of privacy that sometimes goes against the interests of individuals or is abused by individuals against their employers or to harm companies.
In the current situation of uncertainty, businesses can only continue performing TIAs in the best possible manner, hoping that a higher level of certainty will be ultimately achieved. For this purpose, you might find the DLA Piper legal tech tool ” Transfer ” helpful to support data transfers; read more on the topic HERE.
