Wine Law

other that is linked to the commercial activity they represent, in the commission of illicit acts by the subjects of application” of the Law. Once again, the Law distances itself from what has been the regulation of consumer protection in Venezuela, by not establishing an autonomous civil liability regime that allows consumers to enforce their rights without resorting to either the contractual liability regime or the non- contractual liability regime. They then have the preliminary problem of needing to determine when to resort to one or the other since, in Venezuela, there is a dual system with different regulations for both types of liability 81 . Indeed, Article 38 is limited to establishing that the imposition of any of the sanctions, provided by the Law, “does not prevent or impair the right of the affected parties to demand compensation from the offender for damages and losses that it may have caused, in accordance with the applicable legal system ” (emphasis added). Thus, if the consumer decides to sue the retailer from whom the wine that caused the damage was acquired, the former must resort to the rules on contractual liability. In contrast, having decided to go, for example, against the producer or the importer, the consumer must do so by non- contractual rules, assuming the burden of proving the fault of the agent of damage [Art. 1(185) Civil Code], an unnecessary requirement in contractual matters, in which the fault is absolutely presumed [Art. 1(271) Civil Code]. The Law on Fair Prices prohibits, in its Article 50, the importation of goods that are harmful to health and forbidden to consume and penalises this conduct with six to eight years’ imprisonment. This penalty may be increased from one third to one half, in the case of the public official who authorises such importation or marketing. Regarding consumer protection, the rules of the Venezuelan Law on Quality System 82 must also be considered. The purpose of this Law is to “develop the guiding principles that the Constitution of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela establishes in terms of quality, determine its political bases and design the legal framework that regulates the Venezuelan System for Quality, also establish the necessary mechanisms that allow guaranteeing the rights of people to have quality goods and 81 Madrid Martínez, Claudia, La responsabilidad civil derivada de la prestación de servicios. Aspectos internos e internacionales , Caracas, Academia de Ciencias Políticas y Sociales, 2009, Serie Tesis No. 4, p. 55. 82 Official Gazette No. 37.355, 23 October 2002.