International Transfers of Personal Data in Latin America: From the Brussels Effect to the Washington Effect
This Article examines international data transfer regimes in Latin America through the competing influences of the Brussels Effect and what it conceptualizes as the Washington Effect. First, it shows how EU data protection law has shaped not only primary legislation in the region, but also technical rules governing cross border data flows. Second, it analyzes how the United States has sought to project its long-standing commitment to free data flows through trade agreements and soft-law mechanisms such as the CBPR system, rather than through comprehensive privacy legislation. This Article is the first to conceptualize the US strategy of embedding de facto adequacy determinations within trade agreements under the label of the Washington Effect, and to assess its projected impact on the global data protection ecosystem and the traditional dominance of the Brussels Effect. Finally, this Article situates these developments within broader geopolitical tensions between trade liberalization and privacy-based data transfer restrictions, and the effect on current transfer methods, with significant implications for the future of cross-border data governance in Latin America and beyond.
Recommended Citation: Pablo A. Palazzi, International Transfers of Personal Data in Latin America: From the Brussels Effect to the Washington Effect, 49 Fordham Int'l L.J. 1153 (2026).