Law note · Lebanon

Law No. 81/2018 on Electronic Transactions and Personal Data, Part V (Personal Data Protection)

cite Law No. 81 Official Gazette of Lebanon, promulgated 10 October 2018 (in force 31 March 2019), Arts. 85-106 (Part V, Personal Data Protection) stage IN FORCE in force since 2019-03-31 kind Comprehensive regime binds public and private bodies reviewed 2026-08-29

What it requires

An app processing the personal data of a person in Lebanon, automatically or not, needs a permit filed with the Ministry of Economy and Trade or a qualifying exemption before collecting or processing it, must give notice at collection, and must limit use to the stated purpose. Collecting or processing health, genetic identity, or sexual-life data needs the person's explicit consent or a licensed exception; Lebanon's sensitive-category list does not name biometric data specifically, so a voiceprint or faceprint is regulated as ordinary personal data under the general permit rule rather than under a heightened biometric standard. An app must honor a person's right to access, correct, and object to processing of their data, including objection to direct marketing, and no purely automated decision may determine a legal or similarly significant outcome about them. Lebanon has no dedicated data-protection authority; enforcement runs through the Ministry of Economy and Trade's licensing power and, for the access and correction rights specifically, a court action before the Magistrate of Summary Justice.

When LexLint raises it

crawls_web
trains_models
generates_content
deploys_chatbot
automated_outreach
high_risk_decisions
processes_voice
processes_biometrics

Private right of action: No

What we found

Part V of Law 81/2018 governs all automatic and non-automatic processing of personal data by public and private actors, with a narrow household exemption. Processing requires either a permit filed with the Ministry of Economy and Trade or one of several statutory exemptions, and sensitive-category processing (health, genetic identity, sexual life) additionally needs a specific ministerial license.

The law grants access, correction, and objection rights, including objection to direct marketing, and bars a purely automated decision from determining a legal or similarly significant outcome about a person. The statute is validly in force but its implementing decrees were never issued and no independent supervisory authority was ever stood up; the Ministry of Economy and Trade alone administers licensing, with no independent oversight of that role.

Primary source

official English translation of the Official Gazette text, hosted by SMEX

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