JURIST - Paper Chase: EU, US fail to meet deadline for new air passenger data-sharing deal

[JURIST] European airlines that transmit passenger data to the United States could face legal action or fines after EU and US officials failed to reach agreement [JURIST report] by Saturday's court-imposed deadline on how to share passenger information [Reuters report] without violating EU privacy laws. Since the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, the US has required airlines landing in the country to supply the name, address, telephone number and credit card details of every passenger. In May, however, the European Court of Justice [official website] struck down the agreement as illegal [JURIST report] under EU law, forcing the US and the EU to begin negotiating a new deal [JURIST reports].

Airlines that do not supply the required data within 15 minutes of takeoff could lose US landing rights and face fines of $6,000 per passenger. While the EU court ruling has aggravated US officials striving to heighten border security, those who support it say the passenger name record agreement [BBC Q&A; DHS press release] threatened to make EU citizens' data subject to uses other than basic terror security checks [JURIST report; European Parliament press release]. Negotiations are expected to continue, but it is as yet unclear how failing to meet the deadline will affect trans-Atlantic air travel. AP has more.

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