The European Union and Brazil have concluded mutual data adequacy decisions that will allow personal data to flow freely and securely between the two jurisdictions, creating what the European Commission described as the largest area of safe cross-border data transfers in the world.
The agreements confirm that the EU and Brazil provide comparable levels of data protection, enabling businesses, public authorities and researchers to exchange personal data without additional legal safeguards or transfer mechanisms. The Commission said the move will reduce compliance costs, increase legal certainty and support digital trade between the two economies, benefiting a combined market of roughly 670 million consumers.
The adequacy decisions follow the signing earlier this month of the EU-Mercosur Partnership Agreement and Interim Trade Agreement, and are intended to reinforce broader economic and geopolitical ties between Brussels and Brasília. EU officials said the decision sends a strong signal of shared commitment to multilateralism and a rules-based international order at a time of growing fragmentation in global data governance.
Under the General Data Protection Regulation, the European Commission may recognize that a non-EU country offers an “adequate” level of data protection, allowing personal data to be transferred without further restrictions. The Commission adopted the Brazil decision after receiving a favourable opinion from the European Data Protection Board and approval from EU member states through the bloc’s comitology procedure. The adequacy finding will be reviewed after four years.
Brazil’s privacy framework is anchored in constitutional protections for privacy and data protection and its General Data Protection Law, adopted in 2018, which closely mirrors the GDPR in scope and enforcement. Brazil has also established an independent National Data Protection Authority, a key requirement under EU law.
Henna Virkkunen, the EU’s executive vice-president for tech sovereignty, security and democracy, said the agreement would deepen ties with one of the EU’s most strategic partners and create new opportunities for innovation and business growth. Justice Commissioner Michael McGrath added that the decision demonstrates that strong privacy protections can coexist with economic growth and technological innovation.
With Brazil added to the EU’s adequacy list, the bloc now recognies more than a dozen countries and jurisdictions worldwide as providing sufficient data protection, reinforcing its approach to global digital trade grounded in fundamental rights.
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