Further to the news of the Irish Data Protection Commission’s (“IDPC”) final decision in the Meta international data transfers inquiry, for more information see our article here Lewis Silkin - What do we do about our international data transfers following the IDPC’s 22 May 2023 Meta decision?, on 3 July 2023 the US Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo confirmed that [at least according to the US] the US has completed its commitments relating to the EU-US Data Privacy Framework (the “DPF”).

You can find the US Department of Commerce’s statement here; and the key extracts are:

“Today, the United States has fulfilled its commitments for implementing the EU-U.S. Data Privacy Framework (EU-U.S. DPF) announced by President Joe Biden and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen in March 2022….

 … On June 30, Attorney General Merrick Garland designated the EU and the three additional countries making up the European Economic Area (EEA) as ‘qualifying states’ for purposes of implementing the redress mechanism established under Executive Order (EO) 14086 on Enhancing Safeguards for United States Signals Intelligence Activities. The designation will become effective upon the adoption of an adequacy decision by the EU for the EU-U.S. DPF….

 … today, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) confirmed that the U.S. Intelligence Community has adopted its policies and procedures pursuant to EO 14086.”

Essentially in summary the US has [at least according to them] moved the EO from being just a piece of paper to having some material effect in reality and the US believes this “…will enable the EU to move forward with adoption of an adequacy decision for the EU-U.S. DPF”.

It is now over to the European Commission to make that decision, with the Irish Times last week reporting that “Catherine Donnelly SC, for the DPC, said she understood the European Commission would [in July] give a decision on whether the US offers an adequate level of data protection, or what is known as an “adequacy decision”".

This is good news for EU-US transfers, with a similar process to happen for the UK “shortly” thereafter (noting that the ICO has to give its opinion on any data bridge and the UK Government has to approve).