Gabriela de Ávila Machado
Lawyer at Marcos Martins Advogados
In the case of the public civil action filed by the Public Prosecutor’s Office of the Federal District and Territories, Judge César Loyola of the TJ-DFT issued a decision ordering the suspension of Serasa’s sale of consumer data.
According to the case file, Serasa Experian was selling consumers’ personal data (name, address, CPF, telephone number, among others) for R$0.98, which, according to the Public Prosecutor’s Office, goes against the General Data Protection Law, which came into force at the end of September. According to the Public Prosecutor’s Office: “it exceeds the limit allowed by Brazilian legislation and hurts people’s right to privacy, as well as their rights to intimacy and image, which includes the right to the protection of their personal data”.
In its defense, Serasa claims that the processing of data is based on the legal basis of “credit protection” (article 7, item X, of the LGPD), however, it should be noted that this legal basis does not support the actual sale of data to third parties, who, in turn, use this data for the purposes of advertising and attracting new customers.
If Serasa fails to comply with the decision, it could face a daily fine
This is yet another important decision regarding the consolidation and enforcement of the LGPD, which aims to protect data subjects from improper processing of their personal data and shows the responsibility of companies towards their consumers.
