News

  On July 31, 2015, Consiglio Nazionale Forense (Italian National Bar Association) (CNF) published its opinion concerning the possibility for attorneys to advertise their practice in stadiums. According to the CNF, there is no law prohibiting attorneys to hang posters in stadiums to advertise their area of practice, provided they comply with the relevant principles of professional conduct. […]

On October 10, 2015, the Vienna Court of Appeal (Oberlandesgericht Wien) issued a written decision in the Austrian Data Protection action against Facebook. The Court of Appeal overturned the Vienna Regional Court’s decision of July 2015 that had rejected plaintiff Maximilian Schrems’ complaint for lack of jurisdiction. See here. On July 14, 2015, the plaintiff had appealed […]

On September 22, 2015, the West Virginia Office of Disciplinary Counsel Legal Ethics issued a comprehensive opinion to provide the guidance for lawyers on the use of social media for both business and personal matters.  West Virginia Office of Disciplinary Counsel Legal Ethics Opinion 2015-02 Lawyer Disciplinary Board – L.E.O. 2015-02 The Disciplinary Board provided […]

On October 23, 2015, the Portuguese Data Protection Authority (Comissão Nacional de Protecção de Dados – CNPD) issued its post-Schrems decision. Implementing the Schrems decision, and referring also to the WP29’s recent statement, the CNPD prohibited data transfers to the US under Safe Harbor. The Authority stated that it will issue provisional authorizations under systems […]

On October 20, 2015, the House of Representatives moved to the Senate a bipartisan bill, the Judicial Redress Act of 2015, which would extend some of the protections of the Privacy Act of 1974 to citizens of certain foreign countries so that they could pursue their privacy rights in US courts. More information on the rights set […]

After the EU Court of Justice (ECJ) held that the Safe Harbour decision is invalid (see here ), all transfers of personal data that are still taking place under the decision are unlawful. So the Article 29 Working Party (WP29) in its September 16, 2015 statement after the ECJ’s Schrems decision. The Woking group also opines that […]

On October 20, 2015, the Irish Data Protection Commission declared that it will proceed to investigate the substance of the complaint brought by Schrems against Facebook “with all due diligence” after the European Court of Justice held the Safe Harbor Decision invalid. The investigation will commence under section 10 of the Irish Data Protection Act and it […]

On September 16, 2015, Google filed a complaint in federal court against a Californian corporation that provides Search Engine Optimization (SEO) services. SEO companies help businesses to have their website rank high on search engines. According to the complaint, Defendant falsely claimed to represent Google, or to be certified and affiliated with it. Google also claimed […]

The FAA Modernization and Reform Act of 2012 required, among other provisions, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to develop a plan to safely integrate drones (civil unmanned aircraft systems) into the national airspace system by September 30, 2015. As of October 2015, the FAA has not published any material and seems to have missed its […]

In light of the recent decision in C-362/14 (Maximilian Schrems v. Data Protection Commissioner), European Data Protection Agencies may suspend data transfers under Safe Harbor. Multinational companies might start to get worried. But are there other instrument to transfer data between the EU and the US? Yes! According to WP29, there are at least two other […]