/ Mixed Commission approves bill “Pro Consumidor”: Macarena Gatica was invited to present
June 23, 2021Macarena Gatica, Alessandri’s partner and executive secretary of Amcham’s digital regulations table, was one of the five expert lawyers invited to present before the mixed commission of article 15-bis of bulletin 12.409-03, called the “Pro Consumidor Law”. From Amcham, they propose to re-discuss the bill on personal data protection and creation of the data agency. The joint committee approved the article on June 23.
The joint commission held on June 16, had the objective of proposing the form and manner of resolving the differences produced between both Chambers due to the processing of the bill that establishes measures to encourage the protection of consumer rights. The session was attended by five invited lawyers: Macarena Gatica, representing the Chilean North American Chamber of Commerce AmCham; Michelle Bordachar, public policy analyst for the non-governmental organization Derechos Digitales; Paulina Silva, BitLaw partner; Lorena Donoso, information technology legal advisor and Jessica Matus, president of ISOC Chile (Internet Society Chile).
“At Amcham we share the vision of privacy as a constitutional right and guarantee, which requires an organic and coherent treatment. Also, we propose that the bill on personal data protection and creation of the personal data agency be discussed again (bulletin 11.144-07)”, stated Macarena in his speech.
Article 15-bis, considers law 19,628 and other regulations on personal data of consumers, as a special law for the protection of consumer rights. In relation to article 2 bis, 58 and 58-bis of the consumer protection law, Macarena Gatica commented on the supervisory powers of Sernac in matters of data protection that appear in said articles. “We consider that the work carried out by Sernac on consumer issues is remarkable. However, on issues of data privacy and cybersecurity, we are talking about a highly technical specialty and we have seen it in international organizations. Sernac is not the ideal body for the audit work”, she said.
Our partner explained that when it is regulated exclusively as a consumer relationship, it seems to be contradictory to the commandment delivered by the Constitution, since protection is being given only to consumers and data privacy is a right for all natural persons. In addition, the “Pro Consumidor” bill creates a new obligation for the provider: to notify consumers of security breaches.
Macarena also said that if Sernac is considered as a control body, Chile could not be classified as adequate legislation on data protection according to the EU, since it lacks independence, because its director is appointed by the President of the Republic. She finally added that none of the consumption control bodies in that region exercises control functions in data protection.
Finally, the lawyer explained that in law 19,628 consent is the great basis of legality, but it contains very broad exceptions. “As much as we have a data control such as Sernac, a company may be treating personal data with absolute adherence to current laws. Article 15-bis does not modify the shortcomings of law 19.628. At Amcham we propose to return to the discussion of bulletin 11.144 that grants general protection, regardless of the quality of the natural person”, she concluded.
Watch Macarena Gatica´s presentation of article 15 bis of Bulletin 12.409-03