The EU and Japan Announce Data Protection Deal

13 August 2018
View Debevoise Update
Key takeaways:
  • The EU Commission and Japan’s central data protection authority have agreed to recognize each other’s data protection systems as “equivalent.”
  • The mutual adequacy finding marks the first reciprocal recognition of data privacy equivalency between the EU and a third country and, once formalized, “will create the world’s largest area of safe transfers of data based on a high level of protection for personal data.”
  • The data deal should make business transactions within the combined region more cost- and time-efficient, bolstering the impact of the reduced and eliminated tariffs under the recently announced EU-Japan Economic Partnership Agreement.