After a three year impasse over the transatlantic transfer of Europeans’ personal information, the EU and the US have come to a new agreement that will restore the open exchange of consumer data. It’s a welcome change for the ad industry.

The EU and the US Monday reached an agreement on cross-border data transfers, bringing an end to a three-year stalemate over the issue. The decision restores the free flow of consumer data between the two jurisdictions – an exchange that supports much of the information economy and amounts to billions of dollars in trade. Transatlantic data transfers had been hamstrung by a 2020 decision by the EU’s highest court, the Court of Justice of the European Union, over concerns about US intelligence agencies’ access to Europeans’ data.

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“The new adequacy decision and EU-US Privacy Framework is good news for advertisers and the broader ecosystem that have eagerly awaited a solution amidst the uncertainty surrounding transatlantic data flows,” says Arielle Garcia, chief privacy officer at IPG-owned ad agency UM Worldwide. It’s particularly promising in light of the EU’s May decision to fine Facebook and Instagram parent Meta with a whopping $1.3bn fine over unlawful data transfers to the US.

Read more in The Drum.