Data Transfer to Great Britain After Transition Period
According to the Article FINPROV.10A sec. 1 of the Trade and Cooperation Agreement between the European Union and the United Kingdom, by the end of June of this year, the transition period regarding personal data will end. As of July 1st, 2021, tranfer of personal data the United Kingdom shall be considered as a transfer to third country.
Personal data transfer to Great Britain shall therefore require application of the relevant security measures mentioned in Article 46 of GDPR. In vast majoity of cases standard contractual clauses will be applied (binding corporate rules are also possible, however their practical significance is much lower). However, please remember that only concluding the standard contractual clauses itself does not make the data transfer legal. A data controller should assess whether the United Kingdom ensures relevant security measures and there are enforceable data subject rights and effective legal remedies for data subjects are available. Importantly, a risk of not correct assesment is on the data controller.
In such situation a possibility to apply more “stable” legal basis for such data transfer, is very important. In that respect, an initiative of the European Comission which declared starting activities leading to issuuance of a decision on the relevant level of personal data procection in the UK, seems to be very needed. Before such decision issuance it is necessary to review the British personal data protection law and its application in the light of the European Court of Justice’s jurisprudence.
In the event that such decision is issued, personal data transfer to the Unikted Kingdom will be possible without fulfilling any additional requirements such us concluding standard contractual clauses. Taking into consideration the indicated above risk of incorrect assessment by the controller whether the United Kingdom provides relevant security measures and there are enforceable data subject rights and effective legal remedies for data subjects are available, we are looking forward to issuing such decision.
