Provisional Measure postpones the General Data Protection Law
Yesterday the Presidency of the Republic published the Provisional Measure No. 959 (MP 959), with the purpose of establishing the operationalization of the payment of the emergency benefit related to Covid-19 (provided for in Provisional Measure No. 936, of April 1, 2020), and also to postpone the effective date (vacatio legis) of the Law No. 13,709, of August 14, 2018 – the General Data Protection Law, or LGPD.
As of the publication of the Provisional Measure, the deadline for its processing in the National Congress starts to count, then to be promulgated and definitively converted into ordinary law. If, within the next 120 days, MP 959 is confirmed by the National Congress, the General Data Protection Law will come into force no longer in August this year, but on the date of May 3, 2021, as stated in the article 4 of MP 959, which amends article 65, item II of the LGPD.
The National Congress will now have to deal with the MP 959 and the other bills that aim to extend the entry into force of the LGPD, with emphasis on PL 1179/2020 by Senator Antonio Anastasia, approved in the Senate on April 3. This PL aims to establish an “Emergency and Transitional Legal Regime” for the legal relations of Private Law (RJET) in the period of the Coronavirus pandemic (Covid-19) and brings, among other proposals, the extension of the beginning of the LGPD to January 1st, 2021. The text also provides for the extension of the application of sanctions for another 12 months – that is, the sanctions could only be applied as of August 2021.
The extension of the LGPD through a MP brings more legal uncertainty for companies that have their LGPD adequation projects in progress, in addition to the risk of signaling Brazil’s lack of commitment to the best data protection practices and respect to the privacy of individuals, especially in the days of Covid-19, when the processing of sensitive personal data has proved to be an important measure to combat the spread of the pandemic.