Ogletree, Deakins, Nash, Smoak & Stewart, P.C. (JD Supra European Union)

After the political and constitutional upheaval of the last four years that has been Brexit, a trade deal - the EU-UK Trade and Cooperation Agreement - was finally reached between the United Kingdom (UK) and the European Union (EU) on December 24, 2020, just days before the deadline when the UK was set to crash out of all EU treaties. Amongst the rules about how much fish a French fisherman...

The Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) recently declared that the EU-U.S. Privacy Shield is invalid because it does not provide an adequate level of protection for the transfer of personal data from the European Union (EU) to the United States.

In addition to the potential uses of contact-tracing apps, discussed recently in episode 1 of the Global Solutions series, most employers now conduct some form of employee screening or monitoring to help prevent the spread of COVID-19 in the workplace and protect staff. Processing employee information raises various data protection issues and requires compliance with certain data privacy...

On July 16, 2020, the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) announced its judgment in the so-called Schrems II case (Case C-311/18), declaring that the EU-U.S. Privacy Shield is invalid because it does not provide an adequate level of protection for the transfer of personal data from the European Union (EU) to the United States. However, it held that standard contractual clauses (SCCs)...

In preparing global strategies for monitoring employee health, employers with international workforces may want to be aware that occupational medicine plays a key role for employers in many countries outside the United States - whether in the hiring and termination process, in developing and implementing health and safety plans, or in evaluating work-related illnesses and injuries.

On October 23, 2019, the European Commission published its report after its third annual review on the functioning of the EU-U.S. Privacy Shield. The Privacy Shield, which became operational in August 2016, details procedures and safeguards for transatlantic data transfers from the European Union (EU) to the United States.

Much has happened since the European Union (EU) General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) went into effect on May 25, 2018. Many EU countries have enacted national legislation to implement and expand the requirements of the GDPR, while other developments have directly affected employers and created new obligations regarding the collection and processing of human resources (HR) data.

Much has happened since the European Union (EU) General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) went into effect on May 25, 2018. Many EU countries have enacted national legislation to implement and expand the requirements of the GDPR, while other developments have directly affected employers and created new obligations regarding the collection and processing of human resources (HR) data.

Much has happened since the European Union (EU) General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) went into effect on May 25, 2018. Many EU countries have enacted national legislation to implement and expand the requirements of the GDPR, while other developments have directly affected employers and created new obligations regarding the collection and processing of human resources (HR) data.

Much has happened since the European Union (EU) General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) went into effect on May 25, 2018. Many EU countries have enacted national legislation to implement and expand the requirements of the GDPR, while other developments have directly affected employers and created new obligations regarding the collection and processing of human resources (HR) data.

On April 19, 2018, the Article 29 Working Party (Working Party), which is comprised of representatives from the data protection authorities in each of the 28 European Union (EU) member states, issued a position paper stating that all employers of EU employees are required to prepare and maintain records of processing activities relating to human resources data pursuant to Article 30 of the...

On March 27, 2018, Helen Dixon, the data protection commissioner for Ireland, outlined the enforcement priorities of the Irish data protection authority (DPA) for the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) during the International Association of Privacy Professionals Global Privacy Summit in Washington, D.C. The Irish DPA has been ramping up its compliance capabilities for the GDPR and will...

With less than six months until the May 25, 2018, effective date for the European Union (EU) General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), companies are assessing their GDPR readiness and concentrating their compliance efforts on the highest risk areas. What is the highest risk area for GDPR compliance?

On November 29, 2017 the European Court of Justice (ECJ) ruled that misclassified self-employed contractors who are really workers or employees could claim back holiday pay all the way to 1996—the year that the European Union’s (EU) Working Time Directive was introduced. The case, King v. The Sash Window Workshop Ltd, involved a window cleaner who was awarded £27,000 ($36,400) to compensate him...

On October 18, 2017, the European Commission published its report and supporting documents regarding its first annual review of the EU-U.S. Privacy Shield (Privacy Shield), which sets forth procedures and safeguards for transferring personal data from the European Union (EU) to the United States. The report concludes that Privacy Shield “ensures an adequate level of protection for personal data”...

On March 14, 2017, the European Court of Justice issued decisions in two cases addressing the delicate legal and political issue of wearing signs of religious belief at work. Most media outlets and commentators who assessed the decisions focused on the court’s acknowledgment that employers may, under certain circumstances, prohibit employees from wearing Islamic headscarves.

On July 12, 2016, the European Commission formally adopted the EU-U.S. Privacy Shield to replace the previously invalidated Safe Harbor Framework as an adequate method of transferring personal data from the European Economic Area to the United States. The U.S. Department of Commerce (DOC) will begin processing self-certification applications beginning August 1, 2016.

On February 29, 2016, the European Commission (EC) and U.S. Department of Commerce (DOC) published a series of documents providing details for the implementation of the new EU-US Privacy Shield framework for the transfer of personal data from the European Union to the United States. Once it is formally adopted by the EC sometime this spring, this new framework will replace the Safe Harbor scheme...

On February 3, 2016, the Article 29 Working Party, the EU body representing the data protection authorities (DPA) of each EU member country, announced that all of the DPAs across the EU have agreed to extend the current moratorium on enforcement action regarding transatlantic data transfers until they have had time to scrutinize the EU-U.S. Privacy Shield data transfer program. EU and U.S....

After four years of debate and a year of uncertainty over the future of data transfers from the European Union (EU) to the United States, this week has seen a historic move towards finalizing new legislation to govern data privacy and protection laws in Europe. On December 15, 2015, negotiators from the Council of the European Union, European Parliament, and European Commission agreed on the text

As has been widely publicized, on October 6, 2015, the European Court of Justice (ECJ) issued its much-anticipated decision in Schrems v. Data Protection Commissioner, Case C-362/14 invalidating European Commission’s Decision 2000/520, which previously held that the Safe Harbor principles provided adequate protection for personal data transferred from the European Union (EU) to the United States.

On October 14, 2015, the data protection commissioner from the German state of Schleswig-Holstein issued a position paper declaring that the use of model contract clauses by U.S. companies and European employees’ consent to transfer their personal data to the United States are invalid. This position paper, which comes on the heels of the European Court of Justice’s (ECJ) October 6 decision in...

On October 6, 2015, the European Court of Justice (ECJ) issued its much-anticipated decision in Schrems v. Data Protection Commissioner, Case C-362/14. The case considered the viability of the U.S.-EU Safe Harbor Framework, which has been applied to permit U.S. companies to transfer personal data regarding their employees and customers from the European Union (EU) to the United States in...

On October 6, 2015, the European Court of Justice (ECJ) will issue its decision in Schrems v. Data Protection Commissioner, Case C-362/14, which may invalidate the U.S.-EU Safe Harbor Framework. The Safe Harbor Framework permits U.S. companies to transfer personal data regarding their employees and customers from the European Union (EU) to the United States in compliance with E.U. data protection

January 28, 2015 marked the ninth annual European Data Protection Day. To commemorate the day, Andrus Ansip, European Commission Vice-President for the Digital Single Market and Vera Jourová, the European Union’s (EU) Commissioner for Justice, made the following (some might say, ambitious), joint statement: It is a day to celebrate and raise awareness of the importance of protecting...