New Standard Contractual Clauses for the Transfer of Personal Data to Third Countries Commission implementing Decision (EU) 2021/914

On 04 June 2021, the European Commission has adopted a new set of standard contractual clauses for the transfer of personal data to third countries pursuant to the Regulation (EU) 2016/679 of the European Parliament and of the European Council – General Data Protection Regulation (hereinafter: “GDPR“).

The adoption of new standard contractual clauses was inevitable, taking into consideration the fact that the previous set of standard contractual clauses was adopted before the adoption of the GDPR in 2016 (Regulation (EU) 2016/679), during the application of the Data Protection Directive (Directive (EC) 95/46) and the fact that more than 25 years have passed since their adoption, during which an accelerated development of technology happened, followed by the improvement of the way personal data is being collected.

A novelty, which appears within the nature of the new standard contractual clauses, is the fact that they can be used completely or partly as a model contract on the processing of personal data or other legal act by which the subjects regulate their relationship.

The new standard contractual clauses also bring us a wider circle of subjects whose mutual relationship falls under their regulation. Namely, the old set of standard contractual clauses regulated only the relations between the controller and the controller located outside the territory of the EU/EC and the controller and processor located outside the territory of the EU/EC. Therefore, the new standard contractual clauses expand the circle of entities whose relations regulate the regulation of relations between processors and processors located outside the territory of the EU/EC (sub-processor) and processors and controllers located outside the territory of the EU/EC.

Taking into account that the new set of standard contractual clauses has been adopted, the fate of the old ones is such that they will remain in force until 27 September 2022, when it would be necessary for the subjects to regulate their relations in a new way, i.e. move to new standard contractual clauses.