On 12 November 2020, the European Commission opened a public consultation on its draft implementing decision on standard contractual clauses (“SCCs”) for the transfer of personal data to third countries pursuant to GDPR (“the Decision”).
The European Commission also released an annex to the Decision comprising the revised SCCs (“the Annex”) .
According to the Decision, the SCCs set out in the Annex are considered to provide appropriate safeguards within the meaning of Article 46 of GDPR for the transfer of personal data from a controller or processor subject acting as a data exporter to a controller or (sub-) processor not subject to GDPR acting as a data importer.
The Decision also stipulates that for a period of one year from the date of entry into force of the Decision, data exporters and data importers may, for the purpose of Article 46 of GDPR, continue to rely on the existing SCCs sets for the performance of a contract concluded before that date, provided the certain conditions are fulfilled (i.e., the contract shall remain unchanged, with the exception of necessary supplementary measures in order to ensure that the transfer of personal data is subject to appropriate safeguards within the meaning of Article 46 of GDPR).
The Decision and the Annex are subject to public consultation until 10 December 2020.
The consultation page may be accessed here, where both the Decision and the Annex may be downloaded.
