Municipal Consumer Protection Code in São Paulo
On July 04th, 2019, it was enacted the Law which creates the Municipal Consumer Protection Code (Law n° 17.109/2019), applicable to natural or legal person which resides in Sao Paulo and had established a consumption relationship with a natural or legal person, national or foreign, public or private one.
The Law approaches several topics, among which it is worth highlight the provision regarding the so called abusive practices and abusive clauses, and also provides sanctions to companies that violate this regulation.
In accordance with the Law, for instance, it will be considered as abusive practice (i) the charge of minimum consume or a mandatory consume on bars, restaurants, or night houses, (ii) the transfer to the consumer of costs of the charge on bank slips and (iii) the supplier’s refusal of the liability in case of theft or any other damage in vehicles parked in preserved areas for this purpose, in its establishment.
In this context, it is still considered abusive clauses, among others, (i) those which provide, in car insurance agreements, the refund to the consumer by the market value, if less than it is due according to the agreement, as well as (ii) those which compel the consumer, in adhesion contract, to agree with the transfer, onerous or gratuitous, to thirty parties, of cadastral data entrusted to the supplier.
It is important to noticed that the company that violate the Municipal Consumer Protection Code could be fined, have its products seized or rendered unusable and have the registration revoked, besides being forbidden of manufacturing the product. Also it may have the service suspended, suffer the revocation of the concession or permission of use and revocation of the license, as well as the total or partial interdiction of the facilities. It is important to notice that an administrative intervention and imposition of counter advertising are part of the sanctions.
Besides that, the Law prescribes that the non-payment of the fine, intended to revert to the Municipal Fund of Consumer Defence, may result in an inscription of the company on the list of debtors of the city, which would prevent, for example, a determinate company to participate of a bidding process in Sao Paulo.
This regulation prescribes, also, that the Procon of the city will analyse the veracity of the information provided by the consumer, classifying as grounded and solved, grounded and not solved, finished, not grounded or as a consult provided. In this case, it may be charged of the supplier a remuneration tax of public services for each grounded claim on the value of R$ 300,00 per each service or claim and, in case of a claim grounded but not solved, R$ 750,00.
SAEKI ADVOGADOS remains fully available for any questions or comments.