Las tensiones del procedimiento administrativo sancionador ecuatoriano en materia de protección de datos personales.

Abstract

This study examines the application of the administrative sanctioning procedure (ASP) in the field of personal data protection in Ecuador and underscores the need to strike an appropriate balance between the State’s sanctioning powers and the guarantees of due process and legal certainty. It analyses the normative and procedural ambiguities arising from Articles 64, 65, and 66 of the Organic Law on Personal Data Protection (LOPDP), particularly regarding corrective measures, their mandatory nature, and their potential characterisation as prerequisites to admissibility (conditions precedent) for initiating an administrative sanctioning procedure or imposing an administrative penalty. The study situates data protection within the contemporary context of technological expansion and large-scale data processing, identifying material risks to rights and freedoms, and it further reviews the international and domestic legal framework underpinning informational self-determination. At the procedural level, the thesis identifies tensions and legislative drafting flaws that undermine the internal coherence of the legal regime, including references to non-existent categories of infringements, mentions of subjects not covered by the sanctioning framework, and admissibility requirements that may generate practical obstacles to the sanctioning of minor and serious administrative infringements. It concludes that the current design may weaken effective protection by enabling scenarios of administrative impunity; accordingly, it recommends legislative reform to clarify the relationship between corrective measures and sanctions and, in the interim, advocates for the adoption of secondary regulation to enable a more agile and rights-protective enforcement approach by the supervisory authority, in accordance with the principle of interpretation and application most favourable to the data subject