Expected since the invalidation of the Safe Harbor legal framework after the ECJ’s 6 October 2015  Schrems decision, the European Commission published on 29 February 2016, the texts that should make up the EU-U.S. Privacy Shield, negotiated with the American authorities in the context of the transfer of personal data to the United States and in the interest of re-establishing trust in the transfer procedures.

The Commission made public its draft “adequacy decision” defining the “privacy principles” with which American companies must comply. The text has seven annexes covering the commitments of the American Department of Commerce and the Federal Trade Commission.

The Privacy Shield text provides various means of recourse for EU citizen complaints regarding the transfer of their data to the US, as well as alternative dispute resolution mechanisms, including the appointment of an American Department of State Ombudsperson (Economic Growth Under Secretary, Catherine Novelli). Moreover, American and EU authorities will jointly review the principles on an annual basis.

However, before the final version is established, the Article 29 Working Party, which analyzes the legal bases of the text, must also take a position thereon.

Max Schrems, the Austrian citizen from which the ECJ’s Schrems decision stems has already made known his reluctance with regard to the texts published, by pointing out the Annex VI as published on the Commission’s website states that the American government can still collect bulk data, while the Commission’s press release states that the American authorities have in fact made commitments against this form of mass surveillance.