Subscribe to My Feed




Tell a Friend




  • Polls

    How Is My Site? / ¿Cómo es mi sitio web?

    View Results

    Loading ... Loading ...
  • Recent Comments:

  • « | Home | »

    LAC Consumer Protection Agencies Agree to Increase Cooperation

    By Keith R | December 26, 2008

    Topics: Advertising/Promotion, Consumer Protection | No Comments »

          
    1 Star2 Stars3 Stars4 Stars5 Stars (No Ratings Yet)
    Loading...


    When I wrote my Overview of Consumer Law in LAC and Overview of Consumer Authorities in LAC, I somehow overlooked any mention of regional efforts to get the consumer protection authorities (where they exist) to work together.  Let me rectify that first with this post here, and then with appropriate amendments to those two standalone pages.

    From FLAGC to FIAGC

    During the Euro-Latin American Consumers Dialogue for Development and Democracy convened by Consumers International (CI) in Cartagena, Colombia in 2001, it was agreed that Latin American government agencies in charge of consumer protection should meet annually to exchange information and experiences in enforcing consumer law.  Thus the Latin American Forum of Government Consumer Protection Agencies (Foro Latinoamericano de Agencias Gubernamentales de Protección al Consumidor – FLAGC) was born.

    Each of the annual meetings was entrusted to a different host agency, starting with Chile’s National Consumer Service (SERNAC) in 2002, followed by Panama’s Competition and Consumer Affairs Commission (CLICAC, now the Authority on Consumer Protection and Defense of Competition – APCDC) (2003), Brazil’s Consumer Protection and Defense Directorate (DPDC) (2004), Argentina’s Consumer Defense Subsecretariat (2005) and El Salvador’s Consumer Defender (2006).  To ensure some continuity between meetings, the regional office of CI in Santiago was named the nominal “technical secretariat” of the Forum.

    At the 2006 meeting it was decided to invite Portugal and Spain to be full members and to change the name to Ibero-American Forum of Governmental Consumer Protection Agencies (Foro Iberoamericano de Agencias Gubernamentales de Protección al ConsumidorFIAGC).  [Temas Note: Why have the consumer authorities from English- and Dutch-speaking Caribbean been excluded from this cooperation effort from its inception?]

    At the first session as FIAGC in 2007, hosted by Peru’s National Institute for Competition Defense and Intellectual Property Protection (Instituto Nacional de Defensa de la Competencia y de la Propiedad IntelectualIndecopi), it was decided to formalize FIAGC’s structure by drafting and adopting statutes.  The statutes were approved at the 2008 meeting recently hosted by Mexico’s Federal Consumer Prosecutor (Profeco).

    Today FIAGC has 21 “member” nations — 18 LAC nations, plus Portugal, Spain and Puerto Rico — but four (Bolivia, Cuba, Puerto Rico, Venezuela) have not yet designated authorities to participate.  Representatives from the US sometimes participate as observers.

    Colombia will host the next Forum in 2009.

    What FIAGC Is Currently Working On

    The most recent FIAGC had presentations and roundtable discussions on advertising that looked at

    Also held were sessions of working groups on

    At the end the Forum adopted the “Mexico City Declaration” (click here for text in Spanish) in which they agreed to:

    ________________

    Desde la Procuraduría Federal del Consumidor (Profeco):

    FINALIZA CON ÉXITO EL II FORO IBEROAMERICANO DE AGENCIAS GUBERNAMENTALES DE PROTECCIÓN AL CONSUMIDOR

    En el marco de las actividades finales del Foro Iberoamericano de Agencias Gubernamentales de Protección al Consumidor, el titular de la Procuraduría Federal del Consumidor (Profeco) y anfitrión del evento, Antonio Morales de la Peña, expresó que: “En estos momentos de incertidumbre económica que se vive a nivel mundial, resulta oportuno que los responsables de proteger los intereses del consumidor se reúnan para intercambiar experiencias y tomar decisiones, a fin de combatir un fenómeno que a todos nos afecta: el abuso en contra del consumidor”.

    Lo anterior, fue señalado en conferencia de prensa para dar a conocer las conclusiones del evento y luego de recibir la presidencia Pro-Témpore del organismo que integra a 21 países de Iberoamérica. Dijo que: “Los efectos de una crisis como la que se vive en el mundo obliga a los consumidores a ser más cautelosos a la hora de comprar. Los representantes de los países aquí reunidos -agregó- entendemos el momento difícil que vivimos y coincidimos en que nuestra tarea fundamental es orientar a la población para que realice compras inteligentes, con pleno cuidado del gasto familiar”

    Posteriormente, se emitió la Declaración de la Ciudad de México en la que los miembros del FIAGC acordaron:

    Al concluir la reunión, los participantes expresaron su reconocimiento a la Profeco, y en especial a su titular, Antonio Morales de la Peña, por la excelente hospitalidad y facilidades que brindó para la realización de esos trabajos.

    Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

    Subscribe to My Comments Feed

    Leave a Reply