On 12 November 2020, the European Commission published a draft Implementing Decision (Draft Implementing Decision) on new Standard Contractual Clauses (New SCCs) for the transfer of personal data to third countries pursuant to the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation (EU 2016/679) (GDPR).

The New SCCs aim to reflect the requirements introduced under the "Schrems II" judgment and also to assist data transferors to incorporate safeguards for data transfers that go beyond the current standard contractual clauses. They additionally address known shortcomings of the current SCCs, such as catering for data transfers by EU processors to sub-processors and from EU processors to their instructing controller. Importantly in this respect, the New SCCs expressly state they can be used by parties that are not established in the EU. 

Once approved, businesses will have one year from the date the New SCCs enter into force to replace the current standard contractual clauses used by organisations for making international transfers of personal data under the GDPR.  

The Draft Implementing Decision is open for public consultation until 10 December 2020 and can be found here.