President signs draft law to increase consumer rights and benefits

President Sebastián Piñera signed a bill that grants consumers more rights and benefits with a focus on services, e-commerce and boosting competition during an event held Tuesday at Paseo Bandera in Santiago.

“This will mean greater freedom, freedom of choice, being able to choose the best option and forcing companies to make more of an effort to provide the best quality service at the lowest price,” the President said. He was accompanied by Finance Minister, José Ramón Valente, and Health Minister, Emilio Santelices.

The measures include facilitating contract termination with a service provider, ensuring that the cancellation process is as simple as the onboarding process.

Furthermore, the law establishes the right to returns in online purchases, requiring companies to offer the option to return the product. The legal warranty of any product must not be displaced by a voluntary warranty.

The conditions under which airlines are required to compensate travelers whose flights have been overbooked are modified. The changes include shortening the grace period and adjusting the compensation amount to align with the standard used in the European Union and the United States.

Online medication sales also will be strengthened in order to increase market competitiveness and access to pharmaceutical products with the elimination of the advanced electronic signature requirement for electronic invoices and the creation of a Central Electronic Prescription Repository.

“The most important thing for a social market economy to function properly is for there to be competition between producers of goods and services. These parties must compete to offer the best service and pricing, and this directly benefits consumers,” the President said.