On May 27, 2022, Resolution No. 464/2022, issued by the Secretariat of Domestic Trade of the Ministry of Productive Development, was published in the Official Gazette, approving the Alerts and Recalls Form, included as Annex I, which must be submitted by suppliers to inform and withdraw from the consumer market products with potential risk, harmfulness or dangerousness detected after their introduction into the market. The objective pursued with its enactment was to establish parameters for the submission of information in order to promote compliance with the applicable regulations, as well as to provide specific measures for the publicity of such procedures.
Article 42 of the National Constitution, the framework of the consumer or user protection system, establishes that consumers and users of goods and services have the right, in the consumer relationship, to the protection of their health and safety, to adequate and truthful information, to freedom of choice, to fair and dignified treatment. In turn, the duty of the authorities to provide for the protection of these rights.
In this sense, Article 5 of Law No. 24,240 on Consumer Protection imposes on those who produce, import, distribute or market goods or provide services, the duty to supply or provide them in such a way that, if used under foreseeable or normal conditions of use, they do not present any danger to the health or physical integrity of consumers or users. The Regulatory Decree of the same, No. 1798/1994, on its part, regulates in Article 4 the cases in which, after the introduction of such goods or services to the consumer market, the suppliers become aware of their dangerousness, establishing that they must immediately inform the Authority and the consumers by means of sufficient advertising announcements.
The Alert and Recall of products procedure, until now, was regulated by Resolution No. 808/2017 of the former Secretariat of Commerce and Resolution No. 274/2020 of the Secretariat of Domestic Trade, by which the resolutions of the MERCOSUR Common Market Group No. 4/2017 and No. 1/2010, respectively, were incorporated into the national legal system.
The published Resolution No. 464/2022 established in its article 2 that those suppliers that have web pages or applications and that have initiated processes of Product Alerts and Recalls before the Authority of Application, must incorporate in the same, a link that allows access to the publication of Product Alerts of the National Directorate of Consumer Defense and Consumer Arbitration. It should be worded as follows:
“Consumer protection Product Alert Enter here”.
Likewise, in article 3º, it stipulated that such suppliers must incorporate, in their web pages or applications, a prominent link in terms of visibility and size, called PRODUCT ALERTS AND WITHDRAWALS with the following information:
PRODUCT CATEGORY;
BRAND;
MODEL;
VERSION;
NUMBER OR CODE: CHASSIS/ENGINE/LOT/BAR CODE, ETC;
DATE OF MANUFACTURE;
DATE OF COMMERCIALIZATION;
RISKS;;
POSSIBLE CONSEQUENCES;
RECOMMENDATIONS/WARNINGS.
Finally, in article 4º, a term of ninety (90) days was established for suppliers to adapt their Internet sites and web applications to the terms detailed above, whose non-compliance will be sanctioned in accordance with the provisions of the Consumer Defense Law No. 24.240.
This report should not be considered as legal or any other type of advice by Allende & Brea.
