The IT Law Wiki

Citation[]

Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation, Cross-Border Privacy Enforcement Arrangement (Nov. 2009) (full-text).

Overview[]

CPEA is an arrangement where participating economies are expected to help each other with extraterritorial investigations and enforcement of domestic data privacy laws. The CPEA aims to:

  • facilitate information sharing among privacy enforcement authorities in APEC economies;
  • provide mechanisms to promote effective cross-border cooperation between authorities in the enforcement of privacy law; and
  • encourage information sharing and cooperation on privacy investigation and enforcement with privacy enforcement authorities outside APEC.

CPEA was endorsed by APEC Ministers in November 2009 and commenced on July 16, 2010. The operation is based on mutual agreements rather than legal obligations; whether to accept a request for assistance is within a participant's sole discretion. Even with such a non-binding approach, to date CPEA has only five participants: Australia, Canada, Hong Kong, New Zealand and the United States.