Consumer Law | The Government creates National Consumer Protection Council
On July 8, 2020, Federal Decree No. 10417/2020 was enacted creating the National Consumer Protection Council.
The new Council will be formed by members of several agencies, including the National Consumer Secretariat (“SENACON”), the Ministry of Economy, the Administrative Council for Economic Defense (“CADE”), the Central Bank, and also representatives of the “National Consumer Protection System” from all levels of the federation, of consumer protection associations, as well a representative of the suppliers, and a scholar with well-recognized expertize in the field. The Federal and State District Attorney’s Offices and the Public Defender’s Office will also participate as non-voting members.
The main attributions of the Council are the following
- Adaption of public consumer protection policies already defended by international bodies,
- Creation of Special Commissions
- Amendments to regulations;
- Interpretation of legislation;
- Measures to hinder fraud and;
- Measures to provide an adequate defense of the interests and rights of consumers, as well as to improve and harmonize consumer relations.
Other points of action are the promotion of support programs for less favored consumers and the proposal of measures aiming the consumer education
The National Consumer Protection Council will be also responsible to request to any public agency the collaboration and compliance with the rules that, directly or indirectly, promote the free initiative, and the suggestion and incentive for the adoption of negotiation, mediation, and arbitration mechanisms for small consumer disputes.
Finally, there was a change to Federal Decree No. 2181/1997 in order to allow the participation of the Council during the resolution of conflicts by SENACON, when more than one administrative proceeding is initiated by different agencies to investigate an infraction arising from the same fact attributed to the same offender.
Source: Official Gazette, Section 1, Edition 129, p. 4.
