Brazil LGPD Sanctions Methodology

The binding framework is LGPD Articles 52 and 53, ANPD's inspection and administrative-proceeding rules, and Resolution 4/2023. Sanctions follow an administrative proceeding with due process; an investigation, finding, or maximum statutory number is not itself a final sanction.

ANPD first determines the infringement classification. A medium infringement can significantly affect fundamental interests and rights by significantly impeding or limiting rights or access to services or causing material or moral harm. A serious infringement meets that threshold plus a listed factor: large scale, obtaining or seeking economic advantage, risk to life, sensitive data or data about children, adolescents or older people, lack of a legal basis, unlawful or abusive discrimination, or systematic irregular practices. Obstruction of inspection is independently serious. Other infringements are light.

Article 52 sanctions include a warning with a corrective deadline; simple or daily fine; public disclosure after confirmation and investigation; blocking or deletion of affected personal data; partial suspension of the database or processing activity; and partial or total prohibition of personal-data processing. Resolution 4 links the selection to gravity, nature and circumstances, data-subject rights, proportionality, recurrence, cooperation, governance, remediation, harm, advantage, good faith, and economic condition.

For a simple fine, calculate the base amount using the classification and the Resolution's applicable revenue method, then apply its aggravating and mitigating factors and the minimum and maximum limits. The LGPD ceiling for a private legal person is two percent of prior-year revenue in Brazil, excluding taxes, limited to R$50 million per infringement; it is a ceiling, not the starting point.

Build the record as soon as an ANPD inquiry or inspection begins. Preserve the alleged conduct and legal duties, chronology, processing and affected people, scale and harm, advantage sought or obtained, intent and good faith, recurrence, cooperation, governance, remediation, economic condition, and verified Brazilian revenue inputs.

Keep a traceable case file that separates facts established in the proceeding from estimates, legal positions, and disputed points. Connect every classification criterion, adjustment, corrective action, and financial input to dated evidence and the version submitted to ANPD.

The headline simple fine is not automatic. ANPD must apply the administrative framework to the proven facts, and non-monetary sanctions may be more consequential to operations. Civil damages, consumer remedies, criminal questions, contractual consequences, and sector-regulator action remain legally distinct and may proceed separately.