Description:
This paper addresses how European policymakers have delegated the responsibility of protecting European values inside transnational data flows to private bodies acting as regulatory intermediaries. The paper uses a process-tracing methodology to argue that by accrediting private bodies to monitor codes of conduct and to assess conformity with certification schemes, policymakers have allowed enhanced self-regulation to exist in the shadow of European and national hierarchies. The paper process-traces how the two sub-regimes have evolved and then asks what the similarities and differences between the two sub-regimes are. The paper thereafter draws conclusions about how regulators can impact self-regulation that exists in their shadow through regulating via intermediaries instead of using direct modes of regulation.