During the offers for National Holidaysboth Saga Falabella What The Curacao offered home appliances —from televisions, washing machines and smartphones, among others— to less than S/ 1. In this regard, the National Institute for the Defense of Competition and the Protection of Intellectual Property (Indecopi) reported this Wednesday that they will inspect both companies after known that they would have canceled the purchases that users made within the framework of these discounts.
In this sense, the Supervision Directorate commissioned by the Technical Secretariat of the Consumer Protection Commission No. 03 will verify that the rights of consumers have not been violated after canceling these purchases without their authorization.
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If any violation of the Consumer Protection and Defense Code is found, it will be recommended to apply a sanction of up to S/2 million 070,000 (450 UIT) for each of these companies.
Indecopi adds that since July 29 they began monitoring information on the pages of Saga Falabella and La Curacao as well as customer testimonials on social networks.
Indecopi began monitoring the case on July 29. Photo: Indecopi
Are companies obliged to give me the products I bought?
According to Jaime Delgadofounder of the Peruvian Association of Consumers and Users (ASPEC), these companies are obliged to deliver the products offered on National Holidays despite alleging that it was an error.
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“I have heard many who say that since it was an error, the error is corrected and it should not be complied with. It is false, because the Consumer Protection Code in Article 46 establishes the binding effect of advertising, ”he explained.
This means, according to Delgado, that everything that is promised is mandatory for the company and a right for the client since they are not guilty of the error.
It is worth specifying that Indecopi handles the reasonable consumer criterion for scenarios like this, where the buyer knows that an appliance cannot cost less than one sole, concluding that if he acquires it, he is taking advantage of the situation.
Income was done through the La Curacao brand. Photo: diffusion
Is Saga Falabella obliged to deliver the products that it auctioned off on its website?
As indicated by Crisologist Cácerespresident of the Peruvian Association of Consumers and Users (ASPEC)the Consumer Protection and Defense Code guarantees the right to information that assists consumers and, in addition, this indicates that buyers are empowered to have access to timely, sufficient and truthful information in order to be able to make a conscious purchase.
For this reason, the content of the offer or advertising of the product or service “binds the suppliers and is required by the consumers” despite the fact that this does not appear in the contract or the receipt received. This, he explained, is known as the “binding effect of advertising.” Under these parameters, the company that offered the product is obliged to comply with what was offered, since the person who made the mistake was the supplier and not the consumer.
“Falabella cannot simply pretend that nothing happened or, worse yet, ignore the transactions carried out with consumers who trusted the information provided to them,” said Cáceres.
You can read the full note here.
Falabella saga. Credits: Peru Retail.