Although ESG (which stands for Environmental, Social and Governance) is a popular topic, few are aware of the document “Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights”. Launched in 2011 by the United Nations, the text has influenced countless laws in several countries around the world to this day.

With regard to investigations of corruption in Brazil, the police authority, the Brazilian Office of the Comptroller General (CGU), the Prosecution Office and even the Internal Affairs of various public entities are invariably involved.

In a time where fake news is so prevalent, the topic of dark patterns has gained a lot of relevance. The term was purely academic but, in recent times, has been commonly seen in data protection regulations worldwide.

Now under the Biden administration, the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) has published, on March 3, 2023, an update to its guide for evaluating compliance programs. It assists prosecutors in this task, allowing them to identify whether the program is efficient at the time of the offense and whether it is effective at the time of a charging decision or resolution.

The European Data Protection Board (EDPB) has recently published, after a public inquiry with different segments of European society, three new guidelines related to the protection of personal data.

This is certainly one of the most controversial topics in recent years with regard to the interaction of the medical profession with the health industry – which encompasses the pharmaceutical industry, medical and hospital products and even cosmetics and food.

Administrative Sanctions Regulation on Dosimetry and Application of Administrative Sanctions, which establishes the dosimetry guidelines for sentences, especially calculating the base value for fines the agency may apply. It is an initiative of the rapporteur and director of the ANPD – Arthur Sabbat, in which he was unanimously followed by the rest of the board. Although the criteria set out below establish clear guidelines, the ANPD may depart from its methodology or review the penalty, if impaired proportionality is found between the severity of the violation and the intensity of the sanction.

Going to prison in Brazil is any easy task. The Brazilian procedural law, especially in criminal law, creates so many mechanisms for postponing the final and unappealable decisions that anyone having the resources to hire a lawyer or relying on an active public defender can postpone it. As such, many cases end up time-barred, although Brazilian legislation is slowly advancing in making crimes such as femicide or rape imprescriptible.

Transparency International is a non-profit anti-corruption organization headquartered on Berlin that operates internationally. Its purpose is to combat corruption and criminal activities related to corrupt acts.

In the second half of December 2022, the National Data Protection Authority (ANPD) published an amendment to the Security Incident Reporting form, to be used by all those who need to report security incidents starting January 1, 2023.

While some countries are failing in the fight against corruption, Brazil has achieved a real negative milestone in recent years. The country managed to deconstruct the Car Wash Operation , the most powerful symbol of the fight against corruption ever carried out in the country and also  encouraged impunity to public agents who commit acts of administrative impropriety, by sanctioning Statute 14,230 of 03.31.2022. Since then,  public agents can no longer be held responsible for damages caused by recklessness, negligence or malpractice, since only deceit (the intention to do or not to do) characterizes impropriety in the corresponding crimes typified by law. An open door for the "I don't know" people... For those who intend to prove anything, they must manage on their own prove that the agent intentionally did the act...

Cookies continue to be a source of concern for authorities responsible for data protection in all countries, even more so if one considers the lack of transparency in the collection and use of much of this data. Behold, the National Data Protection Authority (ANPD) issued an orientation guide for dealing with cookies in Brazil, although the General Data Protection Law (LGPD) itself has not displayed specific rules on the subject. Even for that very reason, this ANPD guide comes at a good time to resolve doubts and serve as a basis for guiding everyone on how to deal with the issue in Brazil.

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In Brazil the concept of the whistleblower continues to be ignored –  as having been incorporated into our legal system by former Minister Sérgio Moro's anti-crime package, approved by the National Congress underStatute 13,964 of December 24, 2019 (which utilizes the definition of informant rather than the North American definition of whistleblower) – along with the benefits that its employment could bring to the country, especially in the fight against corruption. While the United States, at the end of 2022, have just passed the Anti-Money Laundering Whistleblower Improvement Act, making significant progress in the battle against money laundering.

According to the Brazilian Constitution of 1988, the Legislative, Executive and the Judiciary Branches are balanced among themselves.

Although Brazilian antitrust rules follow the example of US antitrust law, the pioneers in the subject were not them, but their Canadian neighbors, since the first known antitrust law was published in 1889, in Canada. By the way, this was the year in which Brazil ceased to be an empire, when the Republic was proclaimed on November 15, 1889, by Marshal Deodoro da Fonseca.

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