On July 16, the highest court in the European Union (EU), the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU), issued a landmark judgment in the case of Data Protection Commissioner v Facebook Ireland Limited, Maximillian Schrems (Case C-311/18) (Schrems II). The decision upholds the validity of Standard Contractual Clauses (SCCs) for transfers of personal data outside the European Economic Area, while imposing significant obligations on the parties to such SCCs. However, the CJEU has invalidated EU-U.S. Privacy Shield, which is...

An alternative to polls, this new approach uses sentiment analysis and media attention to forecast election results. NEW YORK, NY - July 14, 2020 - RavenPack, a leading big data analytics provider, has launched a free and publicly available website, offering projections and analysis on the upcoming U.S. presidential election. RavenPack’s forecasting model combines three key inputs: The level of media attention received by a presidential candidate, which has been found to be highly correlated with election success The sentiment for...

In a landmark ruling, the European Court of Justice today struck down the 2016 EU-US Privacy Shield, a method of transferring data across the Atlantic, over concerns regarding the safety of European citizens’ data in the United States. The ruling cannot be appealed. The ECJ’s decision risks legal uncertainty for thousands of businesses in, or dependent on, the transatlantic data economy and could potentially lead to punitive tariffs from the Trump administration. Today’s ruling goes back to 2013, when Austrian privacy activist Max...

On 14 July 2020, the European Commission recommended that EU member states do not grant financial support to companies with links to countries that are on the EU's list of non-cooperative tax jurisdictions. Restrictions should also apply where it has been established that a company or its owners have been convicted of serious financial crimes, including, among others, financial fraud, corruption, non-payment of tax and social security obligations. It is up for the member states to implement this non-binding...

On 14 July 2020, the Belgian DPA fined Google 600.000 EUR, by far the highest fine handed out to date in Belgium. The decision is interesting not just for Google (and Google users) but also for other organisations, due to the lessons it holds regarding international jurisdiction, special categories of personal data and the conditions for the right to erasure or "right to be forgotten". The facts are fairly simple: 12 results of a Google search for X, the CEO...

In a landmark ruling the General Court of the European Union has annulled the European Commission’s 2016 decision to order the Irish Government to recoup €13.1 billion in back taxes from Apple. In an unprecedented move at the time the European Commissioner for Competition, Margrethe Vestager, ordered the Irish Government to recoup the money from the US tech giant, over what it alleged were two special rulings made for Apple. The rulings allowed Apple to pay “substantially and artificially” lower...

On Thursday, May 28th, Tradewind Finance, EACC-NY, Pepper Hamilton (now Troutman Pepper), and CLA Connect jointly conducted a webinar titled “How to Navigate the After Effects of the U.S. Stimulus Packages". The webinar included discussions on the Paycheck Protection Program and how it differs with offerings by the EU, as well as other available programs for funding to combat the economic effects and supply chain disruptions that have resulted from Covid-19. During the webinar, Tradewind’s William Avedon narrowed in on...