translated from Spanish: Sernac received nearly 1,200 claims during CyberDay

During the three days of CyberDay, Sernac received 1,198 claims from consumers, which mainly targeted offers that would not be real, problems in transactions and lack of information regarding the prices of the firms. Regardless of the number of transactions made, the claims were concentrated in five companies: Falabella (25.8%), Ripley (17.4%), Paris (8.3%), Sodimac (7.2%) Linium (2.9%). However, Sernac’s national director, Lucas Del Villar, explained that the behaviour of the companies participating in this commercial event was generally appropriate considering the high number of purchases, although some problems were largely similar to previous events. The authority explained that the agency will be monitoring the weeks following the event, which is the period where claims usually increase, mainly because of the delay of dispatches, problem that has been repeated in this mode of sale during the pandemic and that Sernac is currently addressing with a Collective Procedure with three retail companies. It also assured that the pandemic accelerated the growth of e-commerce, so some background changes were needed to strengthen consumer rights in this area. To this end, there is an ongoing regulation being worked on with the Ministry of economy to address issues such as the requirement to report price history, which will allow for greater transparency in the time of offers; full publication of the price of products including clearance, among others. It also recalled that one of the measures on the “Pro Consumer” agenda also aimed to amend the Consumer Law with respect to the right to withdraw in distance procurement. Currently the regulations stipulate that people can exercise the right of withdrawal, that is, consumers can repent of purchases via the Internet or face-to-face without access to the product. The right of withdrawal must currently be exercised within 10 days of receipt of the product or purchase, but provided that the company adheres to the right of withdrawal, since it can expressly provide otherwise, informing the consumer in advance. What will be sought with the legal modification is that it is at any event.

Original source in Spanish