On July 2, 2011 Peruvian President Alan Garcia signed into law the country’s Personal Data Protection Law (Ley de Protección de Datos Personales, Proyecto de Ley, available here), making Peru the latest Latin American country to adopt European-style privacy legislation. Peru is expected to develop implementing regulations to the new law in the coming months.

The new law establishes a national data protection authority (DPA), with reporting obligations to the Ministry of Justice. The DPA has the power to impose penalties for non-compliance, which are classified as minor, major and severe. The law also establishes an obligation to register databases containing personal information with the DPA.