GLE Americas - Legal Intelligence

20 August to 3 September 2026 | Read online

Good morning from the GLE Editorial desk. This fortnight the courts and the gazettes both moved. In Brasília the Supreme Federal Court began drawing the line between the user data Brazilian authorities may demand directly and the data that needs a judge, and its rapporteur added a narrow urgency exception that every provider serving Brazil now has to understand. Mexico published a full rewrite of its anti-money-laundering rules with a compliance calendar that starts on 30 November and runs into 2028. In Ottawa the Foreign Influence Commissioner told licensed legal professionals exactly where privileged advice ends and registrable influence work begins, five weeks before the 3 October registration deadline. Panama's ninety-day clock to regulate its new economic substance regime ran out with no decree published, leaving groups four months from a fifteen per cent exposure with no procedures to plan against. And the Supreme Court in Brazil postponed, again, the judgment that will decide whether app drivers and couriers are employees, leaving that question open into the fourth quarter with a new ILO standard now in the record.

Joel Gordon, Editorial · Global Law Experts

Quick digest

The one big thing: Brazil's Supreme Court has voted 2-0 so far to require a court order before a provider correlates registration data with connection records to identify a user, with a documented exception for extreme urgency. The judgment is suspended with no resumption date.

The active regulatory move: Mexico's reformed anti-money-laundering rules were published on 7 August and enter into force on 30 November, reaching every business carrying out a vulnerable activity, not only financial institutions.

The forward-looking risk: Panama's implementing decree for its economic substance regime is overdue, and the regime itself applies from fiscal year 2027, so affected groups are planning against procedures that do not yet exist.

Jurisdictions covered

Brazil · Mexico · Canada · Panama · Argentina · Cayman Islands · Dominican Republic · United States · Trinidad and Tobago · Jamaica

Lawyers featured in this edition

Marta Mendes · Tim Dawson · Nathan Sadler · Martha Villalobos · Mario Alberto Arias V.

What mattered this fortnight

Brazil · Data Protection and Criminal

Brazil's Supreme Court Votes to Keep Court Orders Over User Data, With a Narrow Urgency Exception

On 27 August the STF began judging ADC 91, brought by the internet providers' association Abrint, on article 10, paragraph 1 of the Marco Civil da Internet. Rapporteur Cristiano Zanin voted to uphold the provision and Dias Toffoli followed, leaving the score 2-0 before the judgment was suspended with no resumption date.

Why it matters for counsel: The line Zanin drew is the one counsel need. Authorities may requisition basic registration data directly, but identifying a person by correlating that data with connection or application-access records requires specific judicial authorisation. He admitted an exception for situations of extreme urgency, giving as examples a kidnapping in progress, an attack on hospital infrastructure or ongoing child sexual exploitation, where police or prosecutors may requisition directly provided the act is documented and later put before a judge. His summary was that the rule is a judicial order and the exception is justified urgency. He also held that the Budapest Convention does not by itself widen direct requisition powers. Any foreign provider or multinational served with a Brazilian demand needs a process that sorts the two categories before it answers.

Read the full analysis →

Mexico · Financial Regulatory and Compliance

Mexico Rewrites Its Anti-Money-Laundering Rulebook, With Staggered Compliance From 30 November

An acuerdo reforming the general rules under the LFPIORPI was published in the Diario Oficial de la Federación on 7 August 2026. It introduces a mandatory risk-based methodology, tiered client files reviewed every six months, beneficial owner identification at twenty-five per cent, and new obligations for virtual asset service providers including ten-year data retention.

Why it matters for counsel: The calendar is what to diarise. General entry into force is 30 November 2026. Structural changes, meaning the methodology, the updated internal policy manual and client classification, are mandatory by 1 March 2027. Automated monitoring mechanisms must be operational by 1 June 2027, the first annual training cycle complete by 31 December 2027, and the annual audit cycle runs from 1 January 2028. The reform reaches everyone performing vulnerable activities under the LFPIORPI, a category that pulls in professional service providers, real estate businesses and virtual asset providers, so this is a client advisory trigger across practices rather than a banking-only development.

“Any business that just became aware that it carries out Vulnerable Activities, should immediately (i) identify the Vulnerable Activity it performs and the applicable identification and reporting thresholds, (ii) complete its online registration before the Mexican tax authorities and, if applicable, designate its compliance representative, (iii) implement Know Your Customer (KYC) questionnaires and data collection policies based on the identified Vulnerable Activity, (iv) create and retain KYC files per client, and (v) file notices and reports pursuant to the Federal Law for the Prevention and Identification of Transactions with Illicit Proceeds.”

Maria Emilia Miquel Verges · Graham Abogados · Mexico (Jonatan Graham Canedo, GLE member, Graham Abogados)

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Canada · Regulatory and Professional Responsibility

Canada's Foreign Influence Commissioner Tells Lawyers When Client Work Becomes Registrable

An interpretation bulletin effective 4 August 2026, signed by Commissioner Anton Boegman, sets out how the Foreign Influence Transparency and Accountability Act applies to licensed legal professionals. The Federation of Law Societies relayed it to the professions on 6 August.

Why it matters for counsel: The carve-out is clear: providing advice subject to solicitor-client privilege to a foreign principal is not an influence activity, and representing a foreign principal before a court does not trigger registration, because judicial processes are not political or governmental processes. What does trigger it is executing an influence activity separate from legal advice. The bulletin gives four examples aimed squarely at practitioners: engaging public office holders to secure financial support for a project, submitting responses to regulatory or legislative matters such as requests for proposals, meeting an office holder to influence policy or regulatory development, and running advocacy campaigns. New arrangements must be registered within fourteen days, and arrangements pre-dating 4 August by 3 October. The bulletin is not binding and the Act takes precedence.

Read the full analysis →

Panama · Tax and Corporate

Panama's Ninety-Day Clock to Regulate Its Economic Substance Regime Runs Out With No Decree

Law 526, promulgated on 28 May 2026 in Gaceta Oficial Digital No. 30534-B, requires entities in multinational groups to show that decisions on passive foreign-source income are made in Panama, with adequate personnel, premises and proportionate operating expenses, or face a fifteen per cent tax on that income from fiscal year 2027. The Executive had ninety days to issue the implementing regulation, a period ending in late August.

Why it matters for counsel: Everything operational depends on that decree: filing deadlines and forms, how tax residence will be defined, the standard applied to pure holding companies, and how outsourcing to local providers is treated. Exemptions already in the law cover regulated banks, insurers and securities intermediaries, and shipping companies in commercial operation. As at the end of August our searches found no published decree, so groups with Panamanian holding structures sit four months from a new exposure with no procedure to plan against. The practical answer is to document decision-making in Panama contemporaneously now, rather than reconstructing it when the forms finally appear.

Read the full analysis →

Brazil · Employment and Technology

Brazil's Supreme Court Shelves the Gig-Economy Employment Judgment Again, With No New Date

On 27 August the STF postponed resumption of the uberização judgment, which will decide with binding effect whether labour court rulings recognising employment between digital platforms and app drivers or couriers can stand. The plenary spent the session on other cases and set no new date.

Why it matters for counsel: The lead case is RE 1.446.336 under rapporteur Edson Fachin, with a companion case under Alexandre de Moraes, both from appeals by Uber and Rappi. The procedural drift is the story: argued in October 2025, suspended, adjourned again in June so the new ILO standard on platform work approved on 12 June could be weighed, re-listed for 19 August, moved to 27 August, now unlisted. The Procuradoria-Geral da República has opined against recognising formal employment. For platforms operating in Brazil and for those advising drivers, the classification question stays open into at least the fourth quarter, with an international labour instrument freshly loaded into the record and a binding precedent still pending.

“The exposure should be priced based on a conservative scenario, without treating the absence of an officially published decision as a material factor reducing the risk. The presence of an ILO instrument in the case record increases regulatory and reputational risk and reinforces the systemic nature of the exposure. Accordingly, the risk is not limited to the employment-related liability arising from the specific case under review: if the algorithmic subordination doctrine is ultimately upheld, it could have a multiplier effect across other contractual relationships and undermine key assumptions underlying the platform’s business model.”

Carolina Ormonde Martins · Head of Labour and Employment, TM Associados · Brazil (Leonardo Theon de Moraes, GLE member, TM Associados)

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North America

United States · International Trade

Twenty-Five States Sue at the Court of International Trade to Strike the Section 301 Forced-Labour Tariffs

Filed on 3 August and co-led by Oregon, Arizona and California, the complaint calls the ten to twelve and a half per cent tariffs ultra vires, arbitrary and contrary to law, and seeks both an injunction and refunds. The tariffs replaced the IEEPA and Section 122 measures already struck down. Importers with entries under the current rates should be preserving refund positions while the litigation runs. Check whether entries since August were made under the challenged rates, and preserve the refund position now rather than after a ruling.

Canada · Agri-Food Regulatory

Canada's New Zoosanitary Certificates for Pet Food Imported From Mexico Became Mandatory on 22 August

The CFIA transition period opened on 22 June and closed on 22 August, so two new certificates are now required for processed pet food and for simple pet chews. Supplements, rawhide-only chews and products with no animal-origin ingredients are unchanged. A narrow but live compliance point for anyone moving pet food on the Canada-Mexico lane. Confirm your Mexican supplier is issuing the correct certificate for each product class before the next shipment leaves.

Central America & Caribbean

Cayman Islands · Regulatory and Tax

Cayman Closes the DITC Portal for the CRS 2.0 Transition, With the Compliance Form Still Due 15 September

The portal shut in early August for the XML schema changeover and reopens in early 2027, but the CRS Compliance Form for the 2025 period remains due on 15 September. Every Cayman financial institution must also appoint a physically local Principal Point of Contact by 31 January 2027, and CRS 2.0 has pulled crypto-assets and e-money into the Financial Assets definition. File the Compliance Form before 15 September and name a locally resident Principal Point of Contact while the portal is still dark.

Dominican Republic · Corporate Criminal

The Dominican Republic's Corporate Criminal Liability Regime Commences in Early November

Article 31 of Ley 74-25 deferred articles 8 to 11, covering corporate liability for management, control and supervision failures, to three months after the 5 August commencement of the new Penal Code. The compliance-programme window is closing: prevention measures, voluntary disclosure, cooperation and internal controls all mitigate under the new code. Get the prevention programme documented before November, because it is the mitigation the new code actually recognises.

South America

Brazil · Tax Litigation

Brazil's CARF Casting-Vote Challenges Return to the Supreme Court List, Score 5-1 Against the Treasury

ADIs 6399, 6403 and 6415 test article 28 of Law 13.988/2020, which ended the Treasury representative's tie-breaking vote so that CARF deadlocks resolve in the taxpayer's favour. The matter was listed for 26 August with the score standing at 5-1 when it was last suspended. Fourteen pending federal tax cases carry an estimated combined impact of R$534.6 billion. Check whether any pending CARF matter was resolved on the casting vote, since the outcome decides whether that assessment stands.

Argentina · Capital Markets

Argentina's CNV Overhauls Its Market Transparency Rulebook, In Force From 21 August

Resolución General 1162/2026 was published in the Boletín Oficial on 20 August and took effect the following day. It rewrites Title XII of the CNV Norms: privileged-information and market-conduct rules, disclosure thresholds for asset disposals, losses and liens raised from ten to fifteen per cent, confidentiality duties extended to primary-offering participants, and a professional registry regime. Re-paper disclosure triggers against the new fifteen per cent threshold, and extend confidentiality undertakings to primary-offering participants.

Member spotlight

Marta Mendes

BOTTI/Mendes Advogados · Brazil · Real Estate

Founding partner of BOTTI | MENDES Advogados in Juiz de Fora, working at the intersection of real estate, corporate structuring and technology. She founded the Commission on Law, Innovation, Technology and Entrepreneurship at the Brazilian Bar Association in Juiz de Fora, and writes for legal journals on patrimonial and corporate structuring.

Read their GLE profile

Tim Dawson

Campbells · Cayman Islands · Regulatory and Compliance

A partner in Campbells' corporate department with more than twenty years advising banks, insurers, reinsurers, asset managers and fiduciary firms. He has been involved in Cayman legislative development and industry consultation on prudential requirements, AML, FATCA, CRS and beneficial ownership, and advises Latin American clients in Portuguese and Spanish.

Read their GLE profile

Nathan Sadler

Nathan Sadler, Attorney-at-Law · Jamaica · Intellectual Property

A Kingston practitioner registered as a trademark attorney and agent with the Jamaica Intellectual Property Office, handling trademarks, copyright, industrial designs and geographical indications. His work includes Madrid application refusals and licensing agreements, and he is an associate member of the International Trademark Association.

Read their GLE profile

Martha Villalobos

Villalobos & Moore · Mexico · Corporate

Partner-in-charge of the Chihuahua office of Villalobos & Moore, leading cross-border corporate work for multinational clients across M&A, permitting, investment incentives and foreign trade. She coauthored the real estate, mining and commercial contracts chapters of Doing Business in Mexico and sits on the board of the US-Mexico Bar Association.

Read their GLE profile

Mario Alberto Arias V.

Arias, Abrego, López & Noriega · Panama · M&A and Real Estate

A partner at Arias, Abrego, López & Noriega in Panama City, practising in mergers and acquisitions and real estate. His firm advises multinational groups on the corporate structures that Panama's new economic substance regime will reach from fiscal year 2027.

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What we're tracking next

Canada, 3 October: the FITAA registration deadline for arrangements pre-dating 4 August. Five weeks out, and the Commissioner's bulletin has now told lawyers where their own line sits.

Mexico, 30 November: the reformed LFPIORPI rules enter into force, with the structural compliance deadline following on 1 March 2027.

Brazil: three suspended judgments with no resumption dates between them, ADC 91, the uberização cases and the CARF casting-vote challenges. Any one of them can headline the next edition.

Open calls for commentary

We are building the next Americas edition and would value member takes on three questions. In Mexico, for a business that has just realised it carries out a vulnerable activity under the LFPIORPI, what should be built first before 30 November? In Canada, where is the line hardest to draw between privileged advice and registrable influence work? In Brazil, how should a platform price its workforce classification exposure while the Supreme Court judgment sits unlisted with an ILO standard now in the record? Reply to this email with a short take and we will attribute it to you and your firm.

Contributors this fortnight

Marta Mendes, BOTTI/Mendes Advogados, Brazil
Tim Dawson, Campbells, Cayman Islands
Nathan Sadler, Nathan Sadler, Attorney-at-Law, Jamaica
Martha Villalobos, Villalobos & Moore, Mexico
Mario Alberto Arias V., Arias, Abrego, López & Noriega, Panama

GLE Americas: The Legal Developments Shaping Your Region This Fortnight