A legal vacuum continues to exist

The new regulation for the Safe Harbor agreement announced for the end of January is not in sight. BDI Director General Markus Kerber expresses his criticism.

“A legal vacuum continues to exist for the exchange of data between the USA and the EU. Discontinuing the transatlantic exchange of data would have unforeseeable consequences for thousands of firms and millions of users. Until a new Safe Harbor agreement is concluded, then at the very least the transitional period of the data protection authorities must be extended. That is important in order to safeguard daily commercial traffic such as the transmission of delivery addresses, the naming of contact data for business contacts or the exchange of personnel data in the concern. There are also uncertainties with the alternative bases for data transmission. Industry expects these instruments to continue to exist. What is important here is for the European authorities to pursue a uniform practice. It is unacceptable that the treaty clauses drawn up by the EU Commission should be differently evaluated in France from in Germany – or even differently by authorities within Germany itself.“

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