The Article 31 Committee of representatives from EU member states plans a Friday vote on Privacy Shield, said a European Commission summary of a committee meeting last week. In the brief summary, the EC said "various improvements" during negotiations the week before with the U.S. (see 1606270055) to the proposed trans-Atlantic data transfer deal were explained to committee members. Several members wanted more time to study the changes before voting Friday, the summary said. Bruno Gencarelli, head of EU Data Protection Unit, told attendees Tuesday at an international privacy conference in the U.K. that the proposed trans-Atlantic data transfer deal would be voted on "this week, and, following a positive vote, the [European] Commission would subsequently be able to adopt an adequacy decision for EU-US data transfers next week," according to a summary of his talk provided by the conference. He said the changes to Privacy Shield include strong data retention and transfer rules, plus government access to the data. "We are moving from self-certification to a much more controlled framework," said Gencarelli. Several other European entities criticized Privacy Shield as providing inadequate protection for Europeans' personal data from U.S. government access and inadequate redress options (see 1605310017). Experts expect a court challenge to the agreement if the EC approves it.

Asia Pacific continued to lead global e-commerce in 2015, after taking over the top spot in 2013, said a Euromonitor report Tuesday. Mobile e-commerce sales for the region, comprising 14 economies, grew 113 percent to $200 billion, it said. The report cited increasing demand for convenience in Asia, driven by urbanization, smaller households and an “on-demand culture.” Overall retail sales for the top 500 retailers in the region slipped 5 percent in 2015 to $964 billion, due to the strong U.S. dollar, Euromonitor said.

An International Trade Commission order bans import of some Arista network devices, including routers and switches, that allegedly infringe patents held by Cisco, the ITC said in Wednesday's Federal Register. The commission set no bond while the U.S. Trade Representative conducts its 60-day review on whether to issue a veto of the Tariff Act Section 337 import ban. The ITC issued a limited exclusion order against Arista and ended its investigation into the company. Arista disagrees with the ITC "that we infringe these patents or that they are valid" but respects the order and will "fully comply," CEO Jayshree Ullal wrote customers last week, in a communication provided to us Thursday by an outside company spokesman. "We intend to fully adhere to all ITC legal requirements and all products that are manufactured" in the U.S. will have "design-around versions" of the company's extensible operating system, Ullal wrote. "All international customers are unaffected by ITC orders. Our primary focus is the continued supply and service of non-infringing products."

The Electronic Components Industry Association and other trade groups stopped an industry recommendation from going forward for a Customs and Border Protection pilot program to test a new approach to gray market imports, said the ECIA in a Sunday news release. It said the ECIA, Semiconductor Industry Association and U.S. Chamber of Commerce opposed the recommendation during a recent Commercial Customs Operations Advisory Committee (COAC) Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) Working Group session. Gray market products are imported goods that were intended for sale outside the U.S. The proposed "Known Importer Program" for gray market products "would have established a known importer status for unauthorized sellers to bypass detention and inspection of shipments at the borders," said the ECIA. "The proposal called for trade associations to administer the program by designating which of its members met the program’s criteria for a known importer. The proposal, if it had been adopted, would have set up a pilot program to test the concept for importers of electronic components." The COAC is made up of industry members that make recommendations to CBP, which ultimately decides whether a COAC-endorsed initiative will be taken up. CBP and a co-chair of the COAC Trade Enforcement and Revenue Collection Subcommittee, which the IPR Working Group is part of, didn't comment Tuesday. "This proposal would have seriously impaired the integrity of the authorized distribution channel for electronic components," said Robin Gray, ECIA general counsel. "Our zealous opposition to the proposal was clearly a determining factor in the [IPR working group's] decision not to recommend the program."

The Trans-Pacific Partnership would lead to new markets for e-commerce and improved customs processing, said Brian Huseman, Amazon vice president-public policy, in a blog post. "That's why we support the Trans Pacific Partnership trade agreement and encourage Congress to approve it," he said. "The agreement makes important progress on areas such as business localization, cross-border data flows, intermediary liability and customs simplification." As Amazon grows, "we want reasonable policies that allow for the movement of goods across borders and that enable anyone in the world to have access to a unique and vast selection," he said. "We also want policies that do not unduly limit the growth of cloud computing by erecting digital trade barriers." But TPP is imperfect and the administration and Congress should work to improve provisions on cross-border data flows and copyright, Huseman said Thursday.

Qualcomm said it’s supporting the European Galileo Global Navigation Satellite System across its product portfolios. The company began implementing hardware support for Galileo several years ago in select chipsets, and now offers what it called the industry's first “pervasive,” end-to-end location-services platform for smartphone, computing, infotainment, telematics and IoT applications. The Qualcomm IZat location services platform uses up to six satellite constellations concurrently without incremental device hardware or cost, and users benefit from more than 80 different satellites when calculating global position for navigation or location-based applications, Qualcomm said Tuesday.

Ericsson confirmed it received a voluntary request from U.S. authorities to answer questions about its operations. "While we strive to at all times conduct our business in compliance with applicable laws, matters do arise from time to time as a result of the global nature of our business," said a company statement Friday. "We will not provide any detailed comments on the request as such, but can say that it relates to Ericsson's anti-corruption program and questions related to the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act. Ericsson cooperates with US Authorities and works diligently to answer the questions."

Mistaken IT changes to about 200 codes led to import transactions involving FCC data to be incorrectly rejected Tuesday, said Customs and Border Protection in an alert. CBP said Wednesday it corrected the problem and such filings should now be accepted upon submission.

Google thinks the Trans-Pacific Partnership promotes the free flow of information in “unprecedented” ways for a binding international trade agreement, balances the interests of copyright holders and public’s interest of creative works, and bans discrimination against foreign internet services, General Counsel Kent Walker wrote in a blog post. Small businesses will especially benefit from these elements of the agreement, but future agreements should include “more balancing provisions,” and “all stakeholders” should be allowed to provide input in future trade negotiations, Walker said Friday. U.S. Congress members and some transparency and other advocates have said TPP wasn't transparently negotiated, and Wikileaks had a campaign to release the text before governments did. "The TPP is not perfect, and the trade negotiation process could certainly benefit from greater transparency," Walker wrote. "We will continue to advocate for process reforms, including the opportunity for all stakeholders to have a meaningful opportunity for input into trade negotiations."

The EU-U.S. "umbrella agreement" will set a high bar for protecting trans-Atlantic personal data transferred by law enforcement agencies, will strengthen legal certainty and will boost the rights of people, DOJ said in a news release. The new agreement (see 1606020018), which awaits approval by the European Parliament, is aimed at improving EU-U.S. cooperation to fight crime, including terrorism. DOJ called it a "major step forward" in relations. Thursday's signing was in Amsterdam during a EU-U.S. Ministerial Meeting on Justice and Home Affairs and was attended by Attorney General Loretta Lynch, Homeland Security Deputy Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas and European Justice Commissioner Věra Jourová, DOJ said.