EU and US consumer organisations, represented by TACD, welcome today’s decision by the Court which finds that the special status of the United States companies permitted to transfer personal information of their European users through the so-called ‘Safe Harbour’ system is illegal under the Union’s data protection and fundamental rights laws, and therefore will be suspended.  The organisations further call on the US to enact privacy legislation to ensure fundamental rights for individuals in both the U.S and EU.

Jeffrey Chester, US Chair of the TACD Information Society Policy Committee and Executive Director of the US NGO Center for Digital Democracy said:

“Safe Harbor was designed to enable US data companies to engage in nothing less than pervasive commercial surveillance in the EU.. The US authorities do not investigate or have the enforcement resources or legal tools to protect Europeans’ data. The end of the current Safe Harbor regime will be a major global victory for privacy.”

Finn Myrstad, EU Chair of the TACD Information Society Policy Committee and Digital Rights Director at the Norway Consumer Council said:

“This case, and multiple others, has shown the privacy and fundamental rights of European citizens are not respected. We need a much better framework that engenders trust and promotes privacy and security of personal information. Only then can we have a digital economy to the benefit of consumers on both sides of the Atlantic”.

Read the full statement here