On Friday, March 25, the U.S. Department of Commerce and the European Commission reached an agreement in principle on a new Trans-Atlantic Data Privacy Framework. This new agreement replaces the invalidated EU-U.S. Privacy Shield, which the EU’s highest court struck down in July 2020. The new deal will enable U.S. retailers to take advantage of a safe harbor from European data protection enforcement actions when transferring data relating to EU employees and customers to their U.S. operations for processing.

Facebook and other companies that had counted on the Privacy Shield mechanism for their EU-U.S. data flows. Ultimately, the EU’s top court sided with Max Schrems, an Austrian privacy activist who asserted the existing framework did not protect Europeans from U.S. surveillance.