Q. When is adequacy never adequate? A. When Quebec’s data protection law is considered ‘inadequate’ for Europe.

On June 4, 2014, the Article 29 Working Party released its Opinion 7/2014 in which it provides its recommendations to the European Commission on whether the relevant provisions of the Civil Code of Québec and the Quebec Act on the Protection of Personal Information in the Private Sector ensure an adequate level of protection for international data transfers in accordance with the EU Data Protection Directive 95/46/EC.

Under the EU Directive, strict conditions apply to personal data transfers to countries outside the European Economic Area that are not considered to provide an adequate level of data protection. In its Opinion, the Article 29WP recommends that the European Commission not adopt a decision on the adequacy of the Quebec data protection law until certain improvements are made to the Quebec law.

I was extremely surprised with this Opinion. You can read my comments in my interview by Nymity.

This content has been updated on August 29, 2014 at 12 h 20 min.