Electronic data interchange: The perspectives of private international law and data protection

Abstract

Abstract The following considerations deal with the impact of private international law and data protection regulations on electronic data interchange (EDI). The article is based on the example of a German corporation which transfers personal data of employees to a British transferee. These transborder data flows lead to the difficult question of which law has to be applied. It is intended to show that the regulations of the German Data Protection Act (BDSG) have to be applied in this case. A contractual choice of law is invalid because of the mandatory nature of the BDSG. According to the German act, personal data can only be transferred to foreign states with an equivalent legislation on data protection. A comparison between the British and the German regulations shows that the British law is not likely to be equivalent to the German standard. Therefore, it is very doubtful whether personal data are allowed to be transferred from Germany to Great Britain. The transferor and transferee may, however, make...