CHILE

On november 11, the National Consumer Service (SERNAC in Spanish) launched a new public consultation process in order to identify and protect hypervulnerable consumers. Observations to the public consultation may be sent to the e-mail [email protected] , within 10 days from this date.

The Interpretative Circular that SERNAC is submitting for public consultation seeks to generate a strategy that allows greater efficiency in the management of its tasks and enables a change in companies in terms of good practices with respect to the country’s hyper-vulnerable consumers. 

The director of SERNAC, Lucas Del Villar, indicated that all consumers are vulnerable due to the asymmetries inherent in the market and the disadvantageous position they have in relation to companies, since the latter have more physical and technological resources, negotiating power and information than consumers. However, he considered that this structural vulnerability deepens under certain situations, asymmetries or personal characteristics of consumers, thus creating the category of “hypervulnerable consumers”.