University of São Paulo: 30 Years Later, the Consumer Protection Code Continues to Uphold Customer Rights
More than three decades ago, the Consumer Protection Code was created in Brazil. Its implementation had a major impact on the law, becoming fundamental and changing the behavior of consumers and suppliers. Buyers became more vigilant, demanding their rights. This reduced the enormous inequality that existed between customers and manufacturers and service sellers. The document also made it a duty to provide clear, efficient and truthful information to the buyer. Roberto Augusto Pfeiffer, a professor in the Department of Commercial Law at the USP Law School, highlights some regulations that had a major impact, such as changes to product labels, which are now much more informative and clear than they were in the past. One example is the identification of the presence of gluten in products. This allowed people with celiac disease to avoid consuming the foods.
The contractual field has also undergone major changes, starting with the extensive range of clauses that may be considered abusive or null by the judge. Professor Pfeiffer mentions some changes such as “the clause that exempted banks from liability for bank fraud, or those that exempted parking lots for thefts that occurred inside vehicles. These clauses are null and void, according to the Consumer Protection Code. Another sector that has undergone changes is health insurance. All those clauses that allowed operators not to cover events due to pre-existing conditions or that established limits on hospital stays, starting, for example, at ten days, and that consumers had to pay the bills in full were considered null and void because they created an exaggerated disadvantage”.
Monitoring irregularities
With the Consumer Protection Code, institutions have improved and act more effectively in monitoring irregularities. The Public Prosecutor’s Office created prosecutors’ offices specialized in consumer rights and the Procons, administrative bodies that receive complaints and claims from consumers and try to mediate conflicts with suppliers and fine them for non-compliance with the Code. Until August of this year, Procon had registered around 38 thousand calls. Among the most common complaints are: problems with telecommunications, financial and banking services, health plans, airlines and travel agencies. The lawyer points out that “Procons are extremely active, but they deserve to be strengthened, whether from the point of view of better investment by municipalities and states in equipping these bodies, or also in support of a bill that seeks to strengthen them, for example, allowing them to impose, in addition to fines, sanctions of obligations to do so, that is, for example, determining that a company that is charging abusively must stop doing so under penalty of a daily fine”.
The Consumer Protection Code has a bill that is constantly updated. As a result, online sales, currently a method widely used by buyers, now have price transparency, the possibility of canceling the purchase within seven days of delivery of the product, and also the obligation to deliver within the established deadline, which, if not done, subjects the supplier to compensation to the consumer, in addition to fines. It is worth remembering that Procons cannot force the company to resolve the case directly, but they ensure that the appropriate sanctions are applied