NEW RULES FOR VEHICLE RECALLS
Joint Ordinance No. 3/2019, promulgated by the Minister of Infrastructure and the Minister of State for Justice and Public Safety, came into force on Tuesday, October 1, 2019, establishing new rules for vehicle recalls promoted by the automotive industry.
Based on traffic safety and heritage preservation ideals, Joint Ordinance No. 3/2019 proposes measures that induce greater compliance with vehicles recalls regulated by Denatran agency, aiming at reducing the rate of accidents caused by car defects, reported by automakers.
In this respect, the new Ordinance establishes the attendance, by the vehicle owner, to the recall campaign within the period of 01 year, under penalty of annotation in the vehicle document. This annotation may be withdrawn only at the next license, upon request attendance information within 15 days after the repair. It is necessary to clarify that the deadline only serves to verify the absence of the recall campaign, as the repair, in these cases, can be performed at any time.
To prove the vehicle repair, the automotive industry must provide, in physical and electronic means, a detailed proof for the owner of recall service, containing the recall identification, indication of repair location, date, time and duration of service, the measure adopted and warranty.
The Ordinance provides digital and broader means to inform the vehicle owner about the need for recall, by sending mobile messages and e-mail, through Denatran services, such as the SNE - Electronic Notification System app, in addition to shipping postal service, which was already provided. The propagation of recall need by the automotive industries will remain through the media and, from the new Ordinance, on social media and automakers' websites for at least 10 years, which may be extended.
In order to improve recall campaigns, Denatran and Senacon will issue monthly reports about the number of notifications sent to vehicle owners and the number of acknowledgments received. On the other hand, the automotive industries should inform Senacon and the competent agencies about suspicion of a possible defect in a particular vehicle and, every 15 days after verifying the real need for recall, send to those agencies the list of repairs already made.
Therefore, Joint Ordinance No. 3/2019 aims to encourage greater compliance to recall campaigns carried out by the automotive industries, bringing consequences to vehicle owners who do not take the car for repair, and encompassing the way recall information will be transmitted by the competent bodies and assemblers to the citizen.
SAEKI ADVOGADOS is at your disposal for any clarifications regarding the effective application of Joint Ordinance No. 3/2019.