Privacy & Information Security Law Blog

On January 21, 2016, a Senate Judiciary Committee vote on the Judicial Redress Act, which would give EU citizens the right to sue over certain data privacy issues in the U.S., has reportedly been postponed. As reported by Forbes, the vote may have been delayed due to amendments to the fifth paragraph of the bill, which deals with litigation pursuant to the act. The vote was initially scheduled for today.

The delay could have a negative impact on the post-Safe Harbor negotiations on trans-Atlantic data transfers from the EU to the U.S., because strengthened privacy rights for EU citizens are an important component to any new Safe Harbor framework between the EU and U.S. European Data Protection Authorities gave the relevant EU and U.S. government negotiators until January 31, 2016, to reach a new agreement for transferring personal data. Failure to reach an agreement could pose issues for companies that previously relied on Safe Harbor to legitimatize their trans-Atlantic data flows.