EU–US Data Privacy Framework

The EU–US Data Privacy Framework is a forthcoming European Union–United States data transfer framework that was agreed to in 2022. Previous such regimes—the EU–US Privacy Shield (2016–2020) and the International Safe Harbor Privacy Principles (2000–2015)—were declared invalid by the European Court of Justice due to concerns that personal data leaving EU borders is subject to sweeping US government surveillance. The Trans-Atlantic Data Privacy Framework is intended to address these concerns.

Since the invalidation of the EU–US Privacy Shield in July 2020, companies wishing to transfer data between the EU and the US "have faced confusion, higher compliance costs, and challenges for EU–US business relationships".

In October 2022 U.S. President Joe Biden signed an executive order to implement the framework. A ratification process by the European Commission is expected to take up to six months. The European Data Protection Board has approved the draft. Although not binding on the European Commission, on 11 May 2023 the European Parliament voted in favour of a resolution calling on the Commission to renegotiate the Framework and not to adopt an adequacy finding on the basis that "the EU–US Data Privacy Framework fails to create essential equivalence in the level of protection".