The nations Consumer Protection Agency in Mexico fined 25 reported businesses over the holidays and closed eight found in violation of Mexico’s consumer laws.
Businesses closed are temporary until the business proves its violations have been corrected.
Hotel, bars, and supermarkets were among the top violators that were fined for displaying prices in a foreign currently, not honoring advertised promotions, confusing and misleading advertising, not display volumetric measurements on products sold by volume and no price displays.
A handful of clothing stores, auto mechanics, and electronic stores were also investigated for reports of violations and resulted in fines and business suspensions.
Fines ranged between $450 pesos to over $3 million pesos, depending on the companies capacity to pay the imposed fine.
The federal agency is inspecting businesses popular with tourists and holiday shoppers in the area over the holidays to protect the traveling consumers.
Businesses found in violation remain confidential by the agency unless fines are unpaid or a business is closed for excessive violations, then such notices of the business name and location are made public with postings at the business location.
In August this year, the agency suspended business operations of 15 local businesses for violations.
The agency encourages consumers to file formal complaints of businesses violating consumer laws at 800-468-87-22, or follow these steps for filing a complaint with PROFECO.
Telcel should be Next !!!!!
The charges are, in many cases, utterly ridiculous. Not putting, in ml, the amount of liquor on drink menus in a bar popular with foreign tourists (who may not even speak Spanish or use metric measurements)? Seriously? No, ounces are not acceptable. No, in English, not acceptable (regardless of the clientele). In what bar have you ever seen a drink menu where they put the amount in ml of each ingredient in a drink? Fucking ridiculous. I call Bullshit. This is about harrassing bussinesses and collecting fines. Not about protecting consumers.
Nothing to do with protecting customers?
I go into a bar and I order a margarita, I watch the bartender make my drink and fill one ounce shot then adds a little more. In the end my margarita has 1.5 ounces. Yuppie for me, I am not going to complain.
Later a Mexican comes and sits next to me, he orders a margarita too. He isn’t paying attention, but I am. I notice the bartender pours less than a full shot glass of tequila into the Mexican’s drink. I am no fool, I know what this is about. The bartender assumes I am a foreigner so I will tip more, so he does me good on my drink. Now with a Mexican he does not expect much of a tip so he shorts him on tequila to make up for the overage he gave me expecting a bigger tip.
I have bartender friends in the area and they admit this is very common practice. Foreigners and “pretty people” get the better pours. The law is meant to encourage equal treatment of everyone, regardless if you think that’s stupid or not.
Now, of course this bar is not following the law so there is no information about how much tequila the client is actually buying in the margarita. The Mexican calls over the bartender and complains that his drink seems a little weak, well because the bar isn’t following the law and the consumer wasn’t paying attention, the bartender says that all margaritas are made with .5 ounces and that is the bar policy. The Mexican got screwed because he was seen as less important than the foreigner.
Now you come here and say that the law is not about protecting the consumer?
Businesses know the law before they open and they understand there is an expectation of following those laws, rules, and regulations as part of being licensed to operate. It doesn’t matter how stupid the business owner thinks some laws might be, we all follow some stupid laws every day without even thinking about breaking them, and if we did we know we will face a fine. This isn’t harassment, it’s called being charged with criminal activity. If business owners don’t like the legal obligations they are expected to follow, then they should close their business so they are not “harassed” for breaking the law.
(fyi, your comment is misleading, businesses can post ounces if they wish, it isn’t illegal. Americans are the only ones who need that measurement, but the requirement is at a minimum you must display the standard measurement of volume used in Mexico.)
lol doers of lawlessness :P