New Legislation Applicable to E-commerce Providers

Resolution No. 270/20, issued by the Secretariat of Domestic Trade (“SCI” after its acronym in Spanish), incorporates Resolution No. 37/19, issued by the Mercosur Group, to Argentine Law. Any infringement to the Resolution will be sanctioned, according to Argentine Consumer Protection Law 24.240 (CPL). The Resolution will be in force 180 days after it was published in the Official Gazette on September 8, 2020.

The SCI remembered that Resolution No. 21/04 issued by Mercosur Group on October 8, 2004, bound e-commerce providers to display clear, sufficient, truthful and easily accessible information to consumers about the offered product or service, as well as commercialization conditions, on their websites.

The SCI noticed that technological advances made e-commerce thrive, which led to a strong increase in transactions carried out by consumers through websites.

For this reason, and in order to meet global standards on this matter, on July 15, 2019, the Mercosur Group issued Resolution No. 37/19, which provided for the protection of consumer rights in e-commerce transactions.

The Resolution applies to e-commerce providers based or established in any of the Mercosur Member States, or that commercially operate under any of their internet domains and thus, establishes that providers must:

 

(i)Provide clear, sufficient, truthful and easily accessible information about the supplier, the product or service, and the transaction carried out throughout the whole process.

 

(ii)Display on their websites the following information, which should be accessible to consumers:

a.Company’s commercial and trade name

b.Address and an electronic domicile

c.Customer service’s email

d.Tax ID

e.Manufacturer’s ID, if applicable

f.ID records of products subject to authorization regimes, if applicable

g.Prices with taxes included and any additional costs or fees

h.The essential characteristics of the product or service, including risks to the health and safety of consumers

i.The payment methods detailing the number of installments, their periodicity and the total financial cost of the operation, in the case of forward sales

j.The terms, conditions and / or limitations of the offer and availability of the product or service;

k.Any other relevant condition that should be known to consumers.

 

(iii)Ensure easy access and visibility of the terms and conditions, and guarantee that they can be read, saved and stored by the consumer in an unalterable way.

 

(iv)Draft the contract in a complete, clear and legible way, without any reference to documents that are not immediately delivered to the consumer. Likewise, they must emphasize those sections of greater significance for the consumer.

 

(v)Provide the consumer with the means to correct errors in the data entry, before carrying out the transaction, and an express confirmation mechanism, so that the consumer's silence is not considered as a consent.

 

(vi)Respect the consumers’ right to cancel transactions without cost within the legal period of regret according to the Member State’s applicable legislation.

 

(vii)Provide an efficient customer service.

 

(viii)Adopt online dispute resolution mechanisms, taking into special consideration those claims that involve hyper-vulnerable consumers.

 

Finally, it established that protection agencies of the Member States must cooperate with each other in order to provide for the adequate protection of consumers in cross-border e-commerce transactions.

In addition, Resolution No. 271/2020 issued by the SCI provided for: (i) specification on how adhesion contracts must be published on the providers’ websites, in accordance to Section No. 38 of the CPL, and (ii) the termination of electronically contracted services, in accordance to Section 10 ter of the CPL.  Any infringement to the Resolution will be sanctioned according to the CPL. The SCI granted a 90-day term since its publication in the Official Gazette for providers to adjust their website to this new regulation.

Section 38 of the CPL mandates that all providers that offer their products or services to consumers by means of adhesion contracts must publish a copy of the contract on their websites.

 

In order to regulate this obligation, the SCI established that providers must:

(vi)Publish all copies of adhesion contracts, as well as any other general o particular adhesion conditions, regarding consumers or potential undetermined consumers. These must be submitted under the label “Contratos de adhesión - Ley N° 24.240 de Defensa del Consumidor”.

 

(vii)Publish those copies on the institutional website’s home page.

 

(viii)Inform the offered promotions and discounts, with precise information about the start and end dates, as well as their modalities, conditions and limitations.

 

(ix)Guarantee easy and direct access to the copies mentioned in point (i) from the home page of the website in question and occupy a prominent place, in terms of visibility and size. The publication of adhesion contracts must be complete, clear and discriminated by each modality, plan, product and / or service. A single hyperlance or hyperlink must be used to comply with this requirement, to the extent that the information provided is part of the official pages of the provider. Referrals to other documents and / or Internet sites will not be accepted. The same considerations will apply in the case in which consumers have a particular access or a registered user on the provider's website.

 

(x)Provide a mandatory notice to inform consumers that copies of the contracts are available on institutional websites.

 

Regarding the cancellation of contracted services by electronic means, it is necessary to remember that Resolution No. 316/2018 of the former Secretariat of Commerce, of the former Ministry of Production, establishes the guidelines to terminate the contracts held with fixed telephone companies, mobile telephony, internet access and subscription of broadcasting services that operate through web pages. Subsequently, prepaid medical services were added to the list.

In the context of the health emergency and the increase in conflicts in hiring and in termination processing, the SCI proceeded to update and incorporate new activities to the list provided by Resolution No. 316/2018. Thus, the subscription of services to newspapers or magazines in paper or digital format, subscription to databases, travel assistance, medical emergencies and health transfers, subscription to clubs and gyms, credit cards contracts held by non-bank issuers, and subscription to periodic donations with automatic debit to civil associations were included.