FNE recommended measures to lower prices and improve competition in funeral services

The National Economic Prosecutor’s Office (FNE) recommended a series of measures to increase competition in the funeral market, which are expected to have the effect of a significant drop in the price of funeral and burial services.
The nine recommendations aim at four fundamental objectives: to increase contributions and freedom of choice; facilitate the entry of new actors; eliminate regulatory barriers to the use of mortuary benefits and supervise the contract between cemeteries and clients.
The national economic prosecutor, Ricardo Riesco, proposed “a reform to increase transparency in the market and allow an easier comparison of services, significantly changing the conditions of the industry to make it more competitive and thus obtain significant reductions in prices.”
“Our study demonstrates with concrete data that there is low competition in the market to attract customers of funeral services, that consumers have behavioral biases that prevent them from quoting and choosing the best option among equivalent services and that there is also a great ignorance on the part of the population of the mortuary benefits to which they are entitled.” Complemented.
In that line, the Minister of Economy, Nicolás Grau, said that “we are going to take the recommendations made by the National Economic Prosecutor’s Office, take that to legislative changes when appropriate and also through Sernac develop an agenda that protects consumers.”

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Original source in Spanish