A long history of challenges in Indecopi in favor of the industry

The Bimbo case, where the Ministry of Health, the Comptroller’s Office and the Congressional Consumer Defense Commission found sufficient evidence to initiate an investigation for a conflict of interest in Indecopi, is not the only one of its kind.

When Alicorp changed the packaging of Angel Mel, sanctioned in 2019 for committing “acts of unfair competition in the form of deception”, the court made up of Silvia Hooker He had already revoked the fine in the second instance, establishing that there was no infraction. His name was Mel, he was sweet, he had a bee and a bowl of honey, but for Indecopi’s Specialized Chamber for the Defense of Competition it had nothing to do with “honey”. At least, no more than 0.5% included per serving to be offered as a “true ally in nutrition”, when the product actually had 40% sugar; that is, a treat and not a nutritious cereal. Today his name is Ángel Meli and, although he lowered the sugar level to 21% at first, he did so by replacing it with sweeteners and not honey. It should be noted that, in 2014, Alicorp bought 100% of Global Food, owner of Ángel cereals, for US $ 107.7 million.

As well as this, there are many other resolutions in different rooms that have been the subject of questioning by different consumer defense organizations.

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Arcor, Backus, Molitalia, Laive and Gloria accumulate, in some cases, piles of favorable resolutions issued in the second instance from Indecopi courts, where some officials, in addition to working part-time and receiving only allowances (a form of daily wage), have close ties with the industrial union since their appointment during the government of the former president Pedro Pablo Kuczynski and his prime minister Fernando Zavala placeholder image, and under the leadership of the former head of the decision-making body Ivo Gagliuffi.

No labs

In July 2020, the Peruvian Association of Consumers (Aspec) filed complaints against the companies Alicorp, Lindley, Global Alimentos, Selva Industrial and Procesadora Catalina for allegedly entering inaccurate information on the labels of their products, in relation to their sugar content.

To demonstrate its position, Aspec hired the services of the SGS laboratory, which selected its evaluation method. The results corroborated that there was a fault and thus it was raised before Indecopi. However, some time later the laboratory gave up and showed new results, this time at the request of three of the investigated companies, arguing that they had previously made the wrong method. It is with this second answer that they achieve their acquittal, without giving greater certainty about what had just happened.

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“It is clear that the accreditation of laboratories in charge of the National Institute of Quality (Inacal) should be mandatory and not voluntary, because, as they are not accredited, companies feel free to act in contravention of the law, “he said. Crisologo Cáceres, holder of the Aspec.

The word

Crisologo Cáceres, president of Aspec

“The decision-making bodies of the Indecopi a list of the resolutions they issued, in particular those referring to complaints against the food industry ”.