Wine Law

524 WINE LAW rights. Nevertheless, since the entry into force of the Constitution, consumer law has suffered a significant decline. This decline is made even more visible as Venezuela began enacting consumer protection regulations early. Rules on consumer protection appeared, for the first time, in 1974 65 , aiming to correct market inefficiencies, particularly in respect of uneven sharing of information and negative external influences in a consumer society. The 1974 Law on Consumer Protection was amended in 1992 66 and 1995 67 , and finally repealed in 2004 by the Law for the Protection of the Consumer and the User 68 . In 2008, the President of the Republic issued a Decree with the Rank, Value and Force of Law for the Defence of Persons in the Access to Goods and Services 69 , which was amended by Parliament in 2009 70 and 2010 71 . This Law was aimed to the defence, protection and safekeeping of the rights of persons, as well as their individual and collective interests in the access to goods and services, the establishment of administrative sanctions and procedures, crimes and compensation for damages. It also provides for application by state entities together with the active participation of the local communities for the protection of social peace, justice, right to life and the people’s health. Despite the clear constitutional mandate, the Law for the Defence of People in Access to Goods and Services was repealed in 2014 by the Decree with Rank, Value and Force of Organic Law on Fair Prices 72 , which aims at establishing “(…) the controls that must be exercised to guarantee people’s access to goods and services at fair prices, which lead to the satisfaction of their needs in conditions of justice and equity, in order to protect the income of citizens and, especially, the salary of the workers” (Art. 1). Unfortunately, this Law does not regulate, with the required detail, the issue of consumer protection. With this reform, which still remains in force, the consumer protection system was dismantled, since the Law on Fair Prices was limited to recognising a series of rights to people in access to goods and services, in its Article 7, without establishing the mechanisms for its effective exercise, beyond some sanctions that, in reality, do not benefit the consumer (Art. 47). This Law is more 65 Special Official Gazette No. 1.680, 2 November 1974. 66 Special Official Gazette No. 4.403, 24 March 1992. 67 Special Official Gazette No. 4.898, 17 May 1995. 68 Official Gazette No. 37.930, 4 May 2004. 69 Special Official Gazette No. 5.889, 31 July 2008. 70 Special Official Gazette No. 39.165, 24 April 2009. 71 Official Gazette No. 39.358, 1 February 2010. 72 This Law was originally published in Official Gazette No. 40.340, 23 January 2014, then it was amended and published in Special Official Gazette No. 6.156, 19 November 2014. In 2015, this Law was subject to a new reform, published in Special Official Gazette No. 6.202, 8 November 2015 and again published, with material corrections, in Official Gazette No. 40.787, 12 November 2015.