The EU/U.S. tug-of-war over data protection is hurting transatlan...
The EU/U.S. tug-of-war over data protection is hurting transatlantic commerce, the American Chamber of Commerce Germany (AmCham) said. Whether they're active in consumer protection, Internet or electronic commerce, companies all over face variances on protection of personal data, it…
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said. No soon did the U.S. and EU settle a dispute over airline passenger name record data than Germany’s Interior Minister demanded the EU collect what the U.S. does, it said. More enterprises in Europe doing business in the U.S. hang on the horns of the same dilemma; they must transfer a multitude of data to the U.S. whose circulation German or EU rules ban, AmCham said. Germany’s economy needs a reliable framework for transatlantic business that doesn’t hamper Germany’s economic relationship with the U.S., AmCham said. U.S. officials will be asking for more, not less data, predicted German telecommunications lawyer Axel Spies. Germany works closely with the U.S. on all levels to fight terror; if its proposed law on mandatory storage of communications traffic data takes effect, the U.S. will tap into that pool as well, he said. Besides terror-related requests, the U.S. seeks data from Europe in other areas, such as addressed by the Securities and Exchange Commission under Sarbanes-Oxley and by the Federal Trade Commission in antitrust, he said. International litigation is “another field of contention” on which electronic discovery requests from the U.S. may clash with EU data protection law, Spies said.