Guyana Launches Consultations on Consumer Protection Legislation
Wednesday, May 6th, 2009[Temas Observation: I have just one question: Why did it take nearly three years for the President to float this legislation again?]
From the Guyana’s Government Information Agency (GINA):
Consultation begins on Consumer Protection Legislation – to ensure consumers rights are protected
Steps are currently being undertaken by the Commerce Ministry’s Consumer Affairs Division to ensure that consumers’ [...]
IDEC Calls for National Do-Not-Call List
Saturday, March 28th, 2009Brazil’s premier national consumer group, the Consumer Defense Institute (IDEC), is calling for a national do-not-call registry to allow Brazilian consumers to stop telemarketing calls to their phones.
Last October São Paulo State adopted a skeletal law (“skeletal” because the governor line-item vetoed much of it) creating such a registry for consumers in that state. The [...]
DR Authority Criticizes Deceptive Advertising by Stores
Friday, March 20th, 2009When you move to a new country, you immediately start noticing how it differs from your former home. Differences that perhaps you knew about intellectually and maybe even noticed in visits before you moved, but they just did not truly sink in before you were actually confronted by them in daily life. When my family [...]
Taking the Campaign on Advertising to Kids to the Streets of Santiago
Sunday, March 15th, 2009ACODECO “Declares War on Junk Food”
Wednesday, March 11th, 2009To commemorate World Consumer Rights Day, Panama’s Authority for Consumer Protection and Defense of Competition (ACODECO) hosted a forum on “No to the Marketing of Unhealthy Foods Targeted at Girls and Boys.”
ACODECO’s Administrator, Pedro Meilán, opened the forum by noting the Authority’s role in protecting consumers in Panama and the alarming fact that Panama is [...]
PROCON: Firms Still Not Obeying Customer Service Rules
Tuesday, March 10th, 2009Recently Brazil’s Justice Ministry (MJ) warned firms that they better get fully into compliance with the customer service decree (“SAC Decree” or “call center decree”) and its related portarias. Now the consumer protection authority (PROCON) of Brazil’s economic powerhouse, São Paulo (SP), reports on where compliance stands after the Ministry warning and its efforts to [...]
São Paulo Rejoins the National Consumer Information System
Tuesday, February 10th, 2009In a recent post on Brazil’s consumer agencies putting consumer complaints on the internet, I mentioned that the National System of Consumer Defense Information (Sistema Nacional de Informações de Defesa do Consumidor – SINDEC) behind the move is missing a few states, most notably São Paulo (SP), the state representing some 40% of the national [...]
Justice Ministry to Service Firms: Improve Customer Service, or Else
Tuesday, February 3rd, 2009Regulated service sectors are not complying with Brazil’s new rules on customer service, despite being given a (brief) grace period in order to bring their operations into line. So declared the Justice Ministry’s (MJ) Department of Protection of Consumer Rights (DPDC), which is now handing out fines, naming names, scrutinizing practices and issuing warnings.
The [...]
Mexican Consumer Group Demands Vehicle Efficiency Labeling / Los consumidores mexicanos exigen etiquetado de eficiencia y de las emisiones de los vehículos
Wednesday, January 14th, 2009Synopsis in English: A Mexican consumer group, The Power of the Consumer (El Poder del Consumidor – EPC) is calling upon automobile manufacturers to label all new vehicles sold in Mexico regarding their fuel efficiency [kilometers (km) per liter consumed] and greenhouse gas emissions [primarily grams of carbon dioxide (CO2) emitted per km], similar to [...]
LAC Consumer Protection Agencies Agree to Increase Cooperation
Friday, December 26th, 2008When 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 [...]
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