Lessons to Learn from the January 2025 Consumer Magazine Published by PROFECO, for Business Advisors, Lawyers, Advertising Experts, Compliance Professionals, and Consumer Specialists:

-In January, the notorious gray market of electronic products, mainly cell phones and consoles, is analyzed, along with how it affects consumers as these are products that do not comply with national NOMs and often lack warranties or the software or capabilities to operate in the country.

‼️Practical Recommendation: Companies must have a perfectly mapped risk assessment of what it implies for products of this nature to reach their markets and the actions they must take to prevent them from impacting their reputational, legal, and compliance areas.

-PROFECO service modules in mass consumer centers such as the airport: if you are a company that operates in the airport, you should know that PROFECO monitors these points of sale more closely than your other locations, as they have a module that usually operates trying to conciliate consumer complaints immediately.

‼️ Recommendations: Have a protocol that instructs your employees on what to do and how to act when faced with an immediate conciliation attempt by PROFECO. It is important to note that PROFECO might also call you by phone to attempt a telephone conciliation, so you must also have protocols to handle this, including directly contacting the ODECO (PROFECO's local office) to continue with the conciliation and verify the identity of the official who is calling you, as well as having a decision tree of possible solutions to conciliate and prevent complaints from escalating.

-Once again, a specific sector or product was analyzed, which this time was American cheese and its imitations, as well as toilet paper.

‼️Recommendations: This investigation helps company lawyers see what the authority is focusing on, which is mainly compliance with the specific NOM that applies, including warning seals and legends, their size, complete product and manufacturer information, as well as ingredients. It also focuses on the label and commercial information or advertising to confirm if it is true or not. In this case, products that it considers to have misleading advertising or false information will surely face Procedures for Infractions of the Law.

-In this edition, PROFECO itself asks companies subject to verification to confirm the identity of the inspectors.

‼️Recommendation: Know the minimum requirements of the new inspector identifications so you don't fall into the hands of a fake one.

-Alerts and recall notices for toys and automobiles.

‼️Recommendation: If you belong to this sector of the industry, review what type of defects are being reported and confirm that you don't have them as well.