While it appeared that Brazil’s Lei Geral de Proteção de Dados (LGPD), which was inspired by Europe’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), was going to be postponed until 2021, that is no longer the case. In a shocking decision, on August 26, 2020, the Brazilian Senate reversed the planned postponement of the LGPD and that law will now become effective as soon as it is approved by the President. That could happen any day and will happen within 15 days. There is even discussion of making the effective date retroactive to August 16, 2020.

Originally, the LGPD was supposed to take effect on August 16, 2020. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, however, it was postponed to May of 2021. On August 25, 2020, the House of Representatives approved an alternative that would make that law effective on December 31, 2020.

One potential bright spot is that administrative sanctions for violating the LGPD will not go into effect until August 1, 2021. Nevertheless, companies who do business in Brazil will need to make LGPD compliance a high priority again.