In today’s digital era, data flows are essential to organisations of all sizes and in all sectors of the economy. They underpin the global economy and international trade in goods and services.

In particular, transatlantic data flows are among the most important for both Europe and the US – there are more data flows between these two regions than anywhere else in the world.(1) Estimates suggest that they are worth about $7.1 trillion, playing a critical role in the EU-US economic relationship.

The new EU-US Data Privacy Framework (Framework) is intended to facilitate such data flows from the EU to the US. These have become increasingly problematic following the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU)’s ruling in Schrems II, which invalidated the EU-US Privacy Shield, a mechanism to enable personal data to be transferred to the US without additional safeguards.