After the European Court of Justice declared invalid the Safe Harbor privacy principles that enabled US companies to comply with privacy laws protecting European citizens, European officials had to work hard and fast to reach a new political agreement in order to reestablish clear safeguards, transparency and required legal certainty to business operators in the transatlantic data flows between the EU and the US.

February 2, 2016 marked the next step in that process when the College of Commissioners approved the political agreement on the new framework, referred to as the EU-US Privacy Shield, and mandated a preparatory phase to put the agreement into effect. EU-US Privacy Shield aims to replace the previously struck-down Safe Harbor framework and to protect the fundamental rights of Europeans during transfer of their data to the United States.

The new arrangement, yet to be approved at the EU member state level, should include guarantees that access to transferred personal data by US authorities under the new framework is not unlimited, but subject to clear conditions. Finally, a dedicated new Ombudsperson will help Europeans with their enquiries or complaints on the new framework.