Summer 2004-02 Product warranties must be in Spanish

Number 56
Summer 2004

Product warranties must be in Spanish

Act Number 83 of March 27, 2004, authorizes the Department of Consumer Affairs to require by regulation that product warranties and other documents be drafted in Spanish.

According to the law’s Statement of Motives, Puerto Rican consumers on a daily basis receive product documents that they cannot read because they are written in English. These include the product warranties that, on occasion, the law says, must be signed by the purchaser. As a result, consumers face the rigorous problem of having to sign product warranties that they do not understand. If they were able to understand what the warranty says, maybe they would decide not to purchase the product.

Regulation

Act 83 commands DACO to study the serious problem and to promulgate a regulation applicable to such instances as it may deem necessary to protect the best interest of consumers. According to the law, the regulation is to provide “that any type of document or warranty that must be signed by a consumer must be drafted in the Spanish language, unless the consumer expresses his preference for text in the English language.”

In addition, all such documents must use type size no smaller than ten points.

© 2004 Goldman Antonetti