Latombe wants the death of the data transfers promised to the US

The Privacy Shield is dead. Long live the Data Privacy Framework, the DPF, the new framework proposed by the European Commission to regulate data transfers to the United States. For many observers, including Noyb’s privacy specialists, the DPF is destined to the same fate as his predecessors.

This device has other detractors than the famous Max Schrems. In France, a Modem deputy, affiliated to the presidential majority, also intends to obtain from the European justice the cancellation of the new framework.

Privacy Shield and DPF: same flaws

At the end of last week, the elected representative of Vendée Philippe Latombe – considered too favorable to video surveillance and its industry by LQDN – filed an appeal with the courts. But to obtain its annulment, he is experimenting with a new method than the appeal to the CJEU.

Philippe Latombe thus seizes the EU General Court on the basis of a specific article of the Treaty on the Functioning of the EU, the TFEU. This allows a citizen to appeal a decision of the Commission with a view to its cancellation.

To be successful, such a procedure must meet conditions, which is the case of the CFO for the complainant. Previous appeals against data transfers have proven their worth, but for the deputy, the approach is proving too long to succeed.

Philippe Latombe also aims for the application of the DPF to be suspended by the court pending a decision on the merits. The deadlines are short. Transfers should in principle start on October 10th.

A new, faster, but uncertain method

The Vendée elected representative therefore hopes to block the regulations before they result in the effective sending of data to the United States where they would not be protected. Because for Philippe Latombe, there is no doubt that the DPF “is a carbon copy” of the Privacy Shield, invalidated therefore by the CJEU.

“The spirit of Philippe Latombe’s approach is to lead to a real evolution of federal legislation in the United States on the protection of personal data, the only one capable of ensuring equivalence with the guarantees of the GDPR”, reacts in France the president of the AFCDP, Paul-Olivier Gibert.

The action brought by the elected Modem, however, constitutes a first against a decision of the Commission. If it can in theory allow a faster outcome, its outcome is nevertheless uncertain. In case of failure, the fate of the Privacy Shield v2 will be sealed again by the Court of Justice of the EU and an appeal by Max Schrems.