The purpose of voluntary peer reviews is to provide an external and independent assessment of the effectiveness of consumer protection law and policy in a given country; to identify the challenges to be addressed and areas to be improved in the legal and institutional frameworks, thereby helping to enhance the quality and efficiency of consumer protection regimes; to assess the consumer protection awareness of relevant stakeholders and their contributions in this area; to formulate and recommend appropriate measures, designed in consideration of the economic and developmental particularities of each country, to address the challenges identified; and, where appropriate, contribute to the implementation of the recommendations by developing a capacity-building plan in consultation with the country concerned.
Peru decided on the following priority areas for its review: strengthening the National Integrated Consumer Protection System; electronic commerce and the sharing economy; consumer product safety; and dispute resolution mechanisms, especially crossborder ones.
This selection guided the drafting of the substantive report and will guide the interactive discussions that take place during the review. The present report, which will serve as a basis for the interactive stage of the voluntary peer review of the country’s consumer protection law and policy, has three aims: a descriptive one, in that it details the Peruvian consumer protection system; an evaluative one, in that it compares national best practices with international ones; and a prescriptive one, in that it contains recommendations for strengthening consumer protection in the country.
Following this introduction, Chapter II will briefly describe the political, economic and social context in Peru. The substantive portion of the report is contained in the next four chapters, which will address the legislative framework (Chapter III), the public policy framework (Chapter IV), the institutional framework (Chapter V) and the participation of the associative and private sectors (Chapter VI).
The chapter on the legislative framework will centre on the main consumer protection law, the 2010 Consumer Code, which sets out substantive law on consumer protection, the system of liability and sanctions, the collective actions available on behalf of consumers and the National Integrated Consumer Protection System, and will supplement the discussion with references to other laws relevant to consumer protection and a brief analysis of consumer data protection. The chapter on the public policy framework will focus on the National Consumer Protection Policy and the National Consumer Protection Plan and will highlight recent initiatives related to electronic commerce.
Chapter V, on the institutional framework, will concentrate on the work of the National Institute for the Defence of Competition and Protection of Intellectual Property (INDECOPI), this being the main consumer protection agency in Peru, but will also touch on other public entities involved in consumer protection, especially regional and local governments. Chapter VI will then look at the role of consumer associations and suppliers as key stakeholders in consumer protection.
Chapter VII will end the report with a summary of the conclusions and recommendations arrived at over the course of the review, indicating both the target audience for the recommendations and the level of priority accorded to each.
