Adobe Systems took a kick to the shins from a German privacy regulator, after the software maker was found to be using the defunct Safe Harbour deal to transfer data from the European Union to the US.

The fine of €8,000 was levied by the office of the Hamburg Data Protection Supervisor, a regulator known for its tough stance on outfits that it feels are breaching privacy laws.

The supervisor's office said (PDF) it carried out tests on 35 international companies to find out if they were lawfully transferring data across the pond from the EU, following a Court of Justice ruling in October that deemed the Safe Harbour pact to be invalid.

Most of the firms eyeballed had complied by changing their data transfer mechanisms within a few months of the top court's decision, Hamburg's privacy regulator said.

But Adobe—along with two other corporations—failed to act in time. "The data transfer operations of these companies in the US [were] made so illegally," the German watchdog said.

The Photoshop software maker has since put the correct mechanisms in place by bringing in standard contractual clauses. However, such clauses could yet be restricted by data regulators in the EU.

Hamburg privacy commissioner Johannes Caspar noted that serious doubts remained about the so-called Privacy Shield—which is Safe Harbour's proposed replacement.