Ladies and Gentlemen,

Yesterday the Irish Data Protection Commissioner decided to:

• Fine Meta Platforms €1.2bn and

• Order Meta platforms to cease transferring European user data to the United States.

While the legal technicalities and procedural history of this decision are complex, the gist is simple: the transfer of European user data to the United States is in conflict with European data protection regulations because the possibility of US government surveillance of transferred data cannot be excluded.

The implications of this decision are vast. Once again, there is no clear legal basis for the transfer of European user data to the United States. This is especially problematic because it is out of touch with reality – American technology companies and European providers using their infrastructure send vast amounts of European user data to the United States every day.

While the European Commission continues to negotiate an agreement with the US to once again provide a legal basis for such transfers, there is no agreed legal basis in the interim. Given the failure of the Commission to put in place a workable framework to date and given that this decision is part of a pattern whereby the agreed frameworks are subsequently invalidated by the legal process (see e.g. the Schrems I and Schrems II judgments of the CJEU), European business leaders and data protection officers face a difficult conundrum.

The best way to future-proof your business against the vagaries of data protection litigation is to store your data exclusively in Europe with European companies beyond the reach of US government surveillance.

We are proud to share that we anticipated this decision after meeting with data protection experts in Brussels last year. As a result, we moved over all of our cloud storage exclusively to OVH Cloud, the European challenger to US cloud providers. OVH Cloud stores data exclusively in Europe and provides us with a guarantee that data will not be shared with US government authorities: https://www.ovhcloud.com/en-gb/about-us/data-sovereignty/

This higher threshold of data protection means that CourtCorrect remains a secure and compliant service for case and complaints management even under these circumstances.

If you have any questions or concerns, please do not hesitate to contact us.

Ludwig Bull

CEO & Founder