Swiss standards have been declared equivalent to GDPR.
Keystone / Roland Schlager
The European Commission has classified Swiss data protection as equivalent to the EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).
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In addition to Switzerland, ten other non-EU countries received the green light for their data protection controls.
When reviewing data protection equivalence, it was concluded that personal data transferred from the EU to Switzerland “continues to be subject to appropriate data protection guarantees, the EC wrote in a statement.
In addition to Switzerland, Andorra, Argentina, Canada, the Faroe Islands, Guernsey, the Isle of Man, Israel, Jersey, New Zealand and Uruguay also received a positive decision. In all of these countries and areas, data could continue to flow “unhindered,” Brussels said.
The EC actually wanted to decide much earlier on the equivalence of data protection in Switzerland and other third countries. The reason for this is the new General Data Protection Regulation, which has been in force since May 2016 and, after a transition period, has been valid in all EU states since May 2018.
The fact that it took so long for the EU to recognize equivalence has nothing to do with the relationship between Switzerland and the EU, but rather with the Austrian lawyer and data protection activist Max Schrems. He had issued a challenge to the EU Court of Justice (ECJ) against the data protection agreements between the EU and the United States.
The Brussels authority first wanted to wait for the ECJ decisions before deciding on the equivalence of data protection in other countries. This happened in the summer of 2023, so the way was now clear.
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