MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Solution wanted at Mercosur level: mobility platforms need local HQs

The lack of representatives of these companies to attend to the claims of their users is a matter of concern, Estigarribia explained

According to Paraguay's Juan Marcelo Estigarribia, Executive Secretary of the South American country's Consumer and User Defense Secretariat (Sedeco), a Mercosur Technical Committee has received a complaint from his agency about the lack of representation of mobility platforms such as Uber and Bolt.

Estigarribia explained in a broadcast interview that a resolution is being drafted so that such platforms are required to have an address in each State where users can forward their claims.

The official insisted that the lack of representatives of these companies in the countries to attend to the claims of their users was a matter of concern.

“We see that the drivers of the platforms are the intermediaries before any claim or complaint about the service and to the platform itself. Today we have no response from any representative, nor from any address of these companies in Paraguay,” Estigarribia said.

Thus, it is impossible to open up a dossier against these companies since they do not have a settlement in the country, Estigarribia explained. He added that there are already two resolutions concerning one of the platforms, which cannot be made effective because this company has no domicile or representatives in Paraguay.

“The company that has been sanctioned is Uber. There were two summaries in Sedeco; both are finalized and so far can not be made effective,” he stressed.

In view of this situation, a complaint has been filed before Mercosur so that platform providers have a domicile in each State where they provide services, in addition to a representative, in order to be in charge of the claims, so that Sedeco and Consumer Defense authorities can enforce the resolutions issued when complaints are filed.

He clarified that only Uber has sanctions while the other mobility platforms do not have formalized claims. “While we have complaints of dealings or service provision, we recommend customers request the invoices of the drivers to make a summary to those responsible. These people do have ... and domicile in Paraguay,” he said.

Other problems facing users of these platforms are that “You ask for a driver and another one comes, or another vehicle appears,” Estigarribia pointed out. He added that these platforms' apps reserve people's data and are not open to those who use these services. “That we want to unlock. Requesting that data within Mercosur. We are going to ask whoever is not allowed to use that app with Paraguay because they do not comply with legal requirements in Mercosur,” he asserted.

(Source: ABC)