Cross-Border Data Transfers Between the EU and the U.S.: A Transatlantic Dispute

Resumen

This article deals with the clash between the European and American approach totransborder data flows. In the last decades, the discourse has been that the U.S. offers amarket-dominated approach while the EU was embedded in a right-dominated policy.General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) restricts data transfers outside the EU. Ananalysis of the meaning of the level of adequate protection of a non-EU country isnecessary to transfer data beyond the EU. The Court of Justice of the European Union hasinvalidated the Privacy Shield agreement to transfer commercial data from the EuropeanUnion to the United States, leaving transatlantic data transfers in a current predicament.Safe Harbour Principles previously and Privacy Shield recently have been read accordingto EU data protection law, in particular the General Data Protection Regulation incombination with the European Charter of Fundamental Rights. The landmark Schrems IIjudgement is assessed to point out current available options to transfer data from theEuropean Union to the United States and also several implications on cross-border dataflows beyond the EU-U.S. relationship.