In its judgment of 6 October 2015 RS C-362/14, the ECJ has now confirmed what the General Advocate stated in a report.
Although Switzerland has an independent Safe Harbour agreement with the US, the underlying considerations of the ECJ’s judgment may also be applicable to Switzerland.
Our FDPIC also shares this view and currently recommends to only exchange data with American companies if the exchange is supported by a corresponding EU standard contractual clause for the transmission of personal information abroad.
For existing contractual relationships, it is also worth checking whether these are solely based on Safe Harbour or on an EU standard clause contract as well.