Privacy & Information Security Law Blog

On June 25, 2014, U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder announced that the Obama Administration is looking to pass legislation that would provide EU citizens with a right to judicial redress in U.S. courts if their personal information that was shared for law enforcement purposes is later intentionally or wilfully disclosed. The announcement was made during the EU-U.S. Ministerial Meeting on Justice and Home Affairs in Athens, Greece, which was co-chaired by the Attorney General and aimed to advance EU-U.S. cooperation in efforts to stop transnational crime and terrorism. The announcement also relates to the ongoing negotiations of the new “umbrella” EU-U.S. Data Protection and Privacy Agreement (“DPPA”).

During the Ministerial Meeting, AG Holder stated that “the Obama Administration is committed to seeking legislation that would ensure that, with regard to personal information transferred within the scope of the proposed DPPA […], EU citizens would have the same right to seek judicial redress for intentional or willful disclosures of protected information, and for refusal to grant access or to rectify any errors in that information, as would a U.S. citizen under the Privacy Act.” No draft legislation has been introduced to date.