Bitkom welcomes the European Commission public consultation period on Draft implementing decision and its Annex to discuss the standard contractual clauses (SCCs) for transferring personal data to non-EU countries as this is an important issue and an opportunity for stakeholders across all industries to provide input. In our view it was necessary to re-draft the SCCs to align them with the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). We would, however, like to point out some concerns and make suggestions to contribute to the public consultation which we believe the European Commission should take into consideration. For further elaborations and to go into more detail regarding the specific provisions, we are available at any time.
We appreciate the chance to provide comments on the new standard data protection clauses for the transfer of personal data to third countries pursuant to Article 46 GDPR. We acknowledge the great value of the updated framework, which will help companies when relying on third country transfers and value the efforts undertaken by the European Commission in modernizing the framework, also to reflect the Schrems II judgment. In particular, we welcome the introduction of the new Clauses also for the processor-to-processor environment.
From our perspective, there are several provisions and which can be further improved, such as related to terminology used, questions of enforceability and some provisions that seem to be phrased ambivalent. We also noted that some concepts may be subject to different interpretations or even misunderstanding by the parties actually implementing the Clauses.