How U.S. Repositories Safely Manage EU Data in Global Litigation

As the world flattens, cross-border privacy and data transfer laws add a new layer of complexity to the already convoluted technological challenges involved in managing electronic data in global litigation and other legal matters.

Some hold the belief that EU data cannot be moved to the United States due to strict privacy laws and regulations governing the transfer of data

In fact, the "Safe Harbor" program allows any U.S. company complying with Safe Harbor provisions to process and hold EU data just as if it was in the European Union

The Safe Harbor Program requires companies to register with the U.S. Department of Commerce and submit to EU jurisdiction to resolve privacy complaints. It also requires Safe Harbor companies to follow EU privacy rules and protect individual data from access by third parties.

Since the inception of the program in 2000, EU governing bodies and tribunals in member countries have validated the program on multiple occasions:

• In 2000, the EU Commissioners expressly declared that the Safe Harbor program complies with EU requirements. This ruling is binding on all countries in the EU. Read the Declaration.
• Two years later, the EU Data Protection Council reviewed the program and declared it was working properly. Read the Report.
• A German Data Protection Tribunals recently recognized and endorsed the Safe Harbor Program as an appropriate data store in ruling on a corporate whistleblower program. Read the opinion.

As a leader in managing multi-language documents in large-scale litigation, Catalyst-a registered member of the Safe Harbor program has received data from multiple locations, including from countries that are part of the European Union.

For more information about Catalyst's participation in the Safe Harbor program or about how we can help you manage international data, contact us.