Germany: Ruling of Baden-Württemberg public procurement chamber excluding US-based cloud provider

On 13 July 2022, the Public Procurement Chamber of Baden-Württemberg issued a ruling ordering the exclusion of infrastructure services provided by European subsidiaries of US cloud providers from the public procurement procedure at issue. The case concerns a public procurement in which a contract was awarded to a service provider which sought to, in fulfilling the contract, engage a Luxembourg-based subsidiary of a US cloud provider to store personal data of hospital patients. In issuing its ruling, the Procurement Chamber referenced the Schrems II ruling of the European Court of Justice on 16 July 2020, which suspends the transfer of personal data to the USA due to a lack of data protection safeguards.