General Data Protection Regulation

Article 46

Transfers subject to appropriate safeguards

1. In the absence of a decision pursuant to Article 45(3), a controller or processor may transfer personal data to a third country or an international organisation only if the controller or processor has provided appropriate safeguards, and on condition that enforceable data subject rights and effective legal remedies for data subjects are available.

2. The appropriate safeguards referred to in paragraph 1 may be provided for, without requiring any specific authorisation from a supervisory authority, by:

3. Subject to the authorisation from the competent supervisory authority, the appropriate safeguards referred to in paragraph 1 may also be provided for, in particular, by:

4. The supervisory authority shall apply the consistency mechanism referred to in Article 63 in the cases referred to in paragraph 3 of this Article.

5. Authorisations by a Member State or supervisory authority on the basis of Article 26(2) of Directive 95/46/EC shall remain valid until amended, replaced or repealed, if necessary, by that supervisory authority. Decisions adopted by the Commission on the basis of Article 26(4) of Directive 95/46/EC shall remain in force until amended, replaced or repealed, if necessary, by a Commission Decision adopted in accordance with paragraph 2 of this Article.

Holdings

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C-311/1816 Jul 2020

Data Protection Commissioner v Facebook Ireland Limited and Maximillian Schrems

Unless there is a valid European Commission adequacy decision, the competent supervisory authority must suspend or prohibit a transfer of data to a third country under standard data protection clauses if, in its view and in the light of all the circumstances of the transfer, those clauses are not or cannot be complied with in that country and the protection required by EU law, in particular by Articles 45 and 46 of Regulation 2016/679 and by the Charter of Fundamental Rights, cannot be ensured by other means. That applies where the controller or processor has not itself suspended or ended the transfer.