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Clifford Chance

Clifford Chance

Briefings

No-deal Brexit and its likely impact on transfers of personal data by EU-based entities to the UK

16 September 2020

The UK formally left the EU on 31 January 2020, and its membership will be terminated at the end of the transition period on 31 December 2020 at midnight CET. The EU and the UK are currently negotiating and will need to come to an agreement on the future of their relationship by that date, or face a "cliff-edge" scenario: a no-deal scenario (i.e. no agreement about the "divorce" process) ("No-deal Brexit"). From a data protection standpoint, in case of a No-deal Brexit, the UK will become a "third country" within the meaning of the EU General Data Protection Regulation ((EU) 2016/679) ("GDPR"). The effect of such a change of status, is that data transfers will no longer be considered as intra-EU transmissions of data. In other words, personal data will no more flow from the European Economic Area ("EEA") to the UK without additional safeguards.

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