RELEVANT PROVISIONS |
- The Consumer Protection Law provided for in Legislative Decree 8/2021 includes harsher penalties for market manipulators. The Law reiterates mandatory guarantees for consumers that cannot be excluded.
- The legal framework for administrative pricing whereby price controls are imposed on essential goods and certain services, which cannot be sold to consumers by vendors in excess of a maximum capped amount, is included in the new Law similar to the previous one.
- Traders across the supply chain from importers to merchants are expected to maintain all documents pertaining to their commercial transactions, including but not limited to invoices, import licenses and customs declarations. Samples of goods may be subject to laboratory analysis.
- Consumer rights include those relating to refunds, replacements and repairs depending on the circumstances. They also have the right to receive invoices upon sales and are protected against false advertising. Furthermore, consumer protection associations may continue to operate.
- The passage of the Law is in response to abuses committed against consumers in the markets caused by hyperinflation, speculation and manipulations in recent years, which carry prison sentences for guilty suppliers and fines ranging from SYP 25,000 to SYP 10 million.
- In addition to the revised fines incorporated into the Consumer Protection Law, it also provides for imprisonment of either two, five or seven years depending on the crimes, such as causing harm to consumers, price manipulations and fraudulent trading in subsidized goods.
- The Law maintains the practice of deploying inspectors from the Ministry of Internal Trade and Consumer Protection into the markets with the authority of law enforcement agents to police, monitor and search vendors and their premises to ensure compliance with the Law.
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