Companies have four weeks to adapt and thus comply from Saturday, May 21 with the new rule that requires them to respond to consumer claims, in commercial establishments, in just 15 non-extendable business days. Before this law, the response period was 30 calendar days, extendable for another 30 days.
But how viable is it to comply with this new provision of responding in just 15 business days? Fiorella Zumaeta, partner at Miranda & Amado, pointed out that it depends a lot on the profile of the companies and the complexity of the products or services they offer. “Clearly, in the case of mass consumption firms or those that carry out highly sophisticated economic activities, it will be much more difficult to adapt to this term”he alerted.
He specified that it should not be lost sight of the fact that in many sectors specific deadlines are handled according to the complexity of the matter, so it is not advisable to have a general deadline that does not take into account the particularities of the industry.
More chances of penalty
The specialist assures that this measure will definitely give rise to more companies incurring sanctions. “If under the previous regime (30 calendar days that can be extended) a significant number of companies failed to comply, reducing the term does not have to change this situation, on the contrary, it will aggravate it”emphasized
In this way, its impact is quite paradoxical because while it seeks to promote a greater number of solutions to claims, the reduction of the term makes it difficult. “Certainly, if after the 15th day the provider is found to be in non-compliance, subject to the imposition of a fine, they will either lose incentive to resolve the claim in the days that follow or will be tempted to provide responses that do not actually resolve the claim. , just to avoid falling into extemporaneity, “he added.
Regarding the time of adequacy of the new provision (60 calendar days), the lawyer argued that in some cases this will not be enough either, since The reduction of the term demands an internal reorganization, which in many cases involves the hiring of trained personnel who can handle the claims in an ideal manner.
On the other hand, in smaller-scale companies, it is probably not necessary to make changes —or these are of minor magnitude— if their average response time is within 15 business days, approximately 21 calendar days, or is close. to this, he commented.
Finally, he explained that in case of non-compliance, The consumer may submit his complaint to the Indecopi Consumer Protection Commission, attaching his copy of the Complaint Sheet, so that a sanctioning procedure can be initiated. against the responsible establishment, establishing fines according to the seriousness of the infraction.
Source: Larepublica
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