He also said that consumers denounced abuses to the right to warranty and poor quality of products and services, mainly.

He detailed that as a result of the surveillance of the food market and other services, the Defensoría carried out a total of 376 verifications at national level in restaurants, hotels, recreational centers and movie theaters, among other establishments.

The president of the Defensoría said that inspection teams found a total of 190 expired products, mainly alcoholic beverages, snacks and carbonated beverages.

The finding of expired product has occurred in restaurants and convenience stores in gas stations, mainly in the kitchen area and sales rooms, as well as in a wholesale store.

In all cases, sanctioning procedures were activated before the Court for very serious infringement of the Consumer Protection Law, which can be punished with a fine of up to 500 minimum wages.

In addition, he informed that this year a total of 260 cases have been reported to the Sanctioning Court for infractions related to the discovery of expired products. He said that the Sanctioning Tribunal has imposed around 135 fines, amounting to US$225,000.

Translated by: A.M