In July, the European Court of Justice struck down the EU-U.S. Privacy Shield, placing the data protection agreement on the ash heap alongside its similarly dismantled predecessor Safe Harbor. With legally defensible data transfers remaining vital to businesses, the EU and the U.S. could be looking to take another crack at a protection agreement. But while the results of which could be fruitful, they could also be short-lived.

Myriah Jaworski, leader of the privacy litigation practice group at Beckage, pointed to the relatively small buffer in between Safe Harbor's demise in 2015 and the enactment of the Privacy Shield the following year. "I don't doubt that we'll see some version of an enhanced Privacy Shield in the next few months, certainly under a year. … But the larger question is whether that new framework is satisfactory to sustain another direct challenge," she said.

In striking down the Privacy Shield, the EU court specifically cited what it perceived as a failure to create an independent body that can both reinforce the provisions of the General Data Protection Regulation and has the power to make binding decisions that are applicable to U.S. intelligence agencies.