The president of the Consumer Ombudsman’s Office, Ricardo Salazar, presented a report on the work carried out by the institution from 2019 to 2024, as part of the celebration of the National and World Consumer Rights Day.
“This is a united government, which protects the rights of consumers, which has been attentive to the different areas of commerce and access to goods and services,” said Salazar.
During this five-year period, the institution has recovered $103,242,622.15 in favor of 540,287 consumers and imposed $7,060,843.44 in fines on more than 1,700 suppliers that violated the legal frameworks for consumer protection.
«We have a 93% effectiveness of closed cases in favor of our population. This is the result of a series of strategies that we have promoted,” the official highlighted.
In addition, he mentioned that during the year of the pandemic, the highest recovery amount was reached, close to $39.4 million. 84.0% of the amount recovered is in the sectors of: Real estate with $46.24 million, in favor of 10,405 beneficiaries; Transportation: $16.91 million, in favor of 80,902 consumers; Financial services: $11.04 million, in favor of 13,091 beneficiaries; and Appliances: $10.62 million, in favor of 27,860 consumers.
Recognition of institutions of the National Consumer Protection System
The National Consumer Protection System is made up of all those State entities that are linked to consumer issues and that work in coordination with the Ombudsman’s Office. The recognized institutions were: Ministry of Economy, Superintendence of Competition, Salvadoran Institute for the Development of Women, Agricultural Development Bank, Higher Council of Public Health, among others.