Uruguay:
What EU customers expect

Overview: trade with the EU

According to the European Commission, more than half of EU imports from Uruguay in 2025 were pulp and paper (52 %). Animal products followed (21 %), mainly beef, then vegetable products (11 %). Pulp mills on the Río Uruguay and meat plants in the interior are therefore directly affected by the EUDR, which covers wood and cattle.

At the same time, Montevideo is one of the most important software hubs in Latin America. Many companies there develop for clients in Spain, Germany or Scandinavia and process personal data from the EU along the way.

Data protection: Ley 18.331 compared with the GDPR

Ley 18.331 on the protection of personal data dates from 2008, and its implementing regulation is Decreto 414/009. With Ley 19.670 of 2018 and Decreto 64/020, Uruguay brought its law closer to the GDPR: the law also applies to controllers abroad if they process data of people in Uruguay, there is a duty to report data breaches, and certain organizations must appoint a data protection officer. The supervisory authority is the URCDP (Unidad Reguladora y de Control de Datos Personales) within AGESIC.

The EU recognized Uruguay as adequate in 2012 with Implementing Decision 2012/484/EU and confirmed this in the Commission's report of January 15, 2024. Uruguay has also ratified the Council of Europe's Convention 108+. Your EU customers can therefore transfer data to Uruguay without standard contractual clauses.

Cybersecurity compared with NIS2

Uruguay is one of the few countries in the region with statutory cyber obligations outside the financial sector. Under Art. 78 and the following articles of Ley 20.212 (Rendición de Cuentas 2022), public bodies and private operators in critical sectors must report security incidents within 24 hours. Decreto 66/025 sets out how this works: reporting to CERTuy, appointing security officers, retaining logs and applying the Marco de Ciberseguridad, a national framework with controls similar to ISO 27001.

Compared with NIS2, fewer organizations are covered. In the EU, NIS2 also applies to medium-sized companies in 18 sectors, including food production and digital services. In Uruguay, the duty applies to critical sectors. At 24 hours, though, the first notice is just as fast as the NIS2 early warning.

Suppliers to European customers also face contractual requirements: NIS2 supply chain clauses, DORA for financial clients and the Cyber Resilience Act for products with digital elements.

Reporting deadlines compared

The data breach deadlines are the same in Uruguay and the EU. A process that covers both is therefore easy to set up.

Authorities, CSIRT, accreditation body

With certificates, what matters is less where the certification body is located than who accredited it. Before you hire one, ask whether its accreditation by OUA or by a foreign body is covered by the international recognition arrangement of the Global ACI (since January 1, 2026 the successor to IAF and ILAC; existing accreditations remain recognized). If so, EU customers will generally accept the certificate. Some large groups still require a specific certifier. Clarify that before you spend money on an audit.

What EU customers typically ask for

A software company in Montevideo developing for a bank in Madrid will receive a security questionnaire, a contract under Art. 28 GDPR and DORA clauses on audit rights and exit plans. An ISO 27001 certificate is often expected. If you already work under the Marco de Ciberseguridad, you have implemented a good share of the controls. In Sightadel you can build on them for ISO 27001, with templates, tasks and evidence for each requirement.

Many EU customers also check the externally visible attack surface of their service providers. With veyrisk you see the same findings yourself and can fix them before the customer asks.

Pulp and timber exporters need geolocation data for their plantations and proof of deforestation-free origin for the EUDR. Meat exporters need the same information for their pastures, plus food safety certificates for IFS, BRCGS or FSSC 22000.

In the contract, these requirements usually appear as annexes: a data processing agreement, technical and organizational measures, reporting deadlines, audit rights and a list of subprocessors. Thanks to adequacy, standard contractual clauses are not needed. If you use service providers in countries without adequacy yourself, such as a support team in Asia, your EU customer will want to know how that transfer is safeguarded.

A sensible starting point for companies in Uruguay:

1. Check whether you belong to a critical sector under Ley 20.212. If so, the 24-hour reporting duty to CERTuy already applies to you.
2. Compare your documentation under Ley 18.331 and Ley 19.670 with the GDPR requirements. The gaps are usually small.
3. Build one reporting process for the URCDP, CERTuy and your EU customers.
4. Check how far your controls under the Marco de Ciberseguridad already cover the requirements of ISO 27001.
5. For timber, pulp and meat exports, collect the geolocation data for the EUDR.

The free EU Readiness Check shows where you stand.

Agreement with the EU

The EU-Mercosur Agreement was signed in Asunción on January 17, 2026 and ratified by Uruguay in February 2026. Since May 1, 2026, the trade part has been provisionally applied between the EU and Uruguay, Argentina, Brazil and Paraguay. The tariff preference requires a statement on origin. The broader partnership agreement is still going through ratification.

What this means in practice: for each product, check the tariff rate, the tariff reduction schedule and the rule of origin. You will find both in the European Commission's Access2Markets portal, sorted by tariff code. For processed goods, the rule of origin decides whether enough value was added within Mercosur. Some agricultural products are subject to tariff rate quotas, meaning limited volumes at the preferential rate. Your importer in the EU often knows these rules better than you do and can help you put the statement on origin on the invoice correctly. Keep your proof of origin for several years, because customs can check after the fact.

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