By Barbara Oliveira

After the period of incentives for granting credit, the consequences of the lack of education for using the credit granted remained. The result of this creation of facilitations is the increase in the number of people who have committed their income in an exorbitant way, which has caused a major economic impact on the country.

Given this situation, it was perceived that there was a need to establish specific standards for the prevention and treatment of this condition, with special attention to compliance with the standards governing consumer relations, in order to avoid an increase in over-indebted consumers.

Bill No. 3,515/2015 aims, in short, to amend the Consumer Protection Code to establish measures to protect over-indebted consumers who, according to the aforementioned framework, are those who commit more than R$301,000 of their monthly net income to paying personal debts. The objective of the Bill is to preserve the bare minimum, by promoting responsible credit and financial education.

Among the provisions of the Bill, the provisions for protecting consumers who are most vulnerable to debt, such as the elderly, illiterate, sick or in any other condition that increases the degree of vulnerability, stand out. The text also provides for the reduction of the period for contesting a credit card from 10 to 7 days, and the extension of the period for complaints regarding possible defects in products and services, starting with 90 to 180 days for durable products, and from 30 to 60 days for non-durable products.

Also noteworthy is the provision of measures that encourage conciliation, allowing the judge to initiate debt renegotiation proceedings, in order to guarantee the preservation of the consumer's minimum existence and human dignity.

Bill No. 3,515/2015, which has been facing objections from financial institutions, was recently approved with reservations by the Chamber of Deputies. One of the main changes suggested by the Chamber was the exclusion of the paragraph that provided for the non-presumption of abuse that advertising to children has on children and adolescents.

The Project will still be analyzed by the Constitution and Justice and Citizenship Committee before going to the Plenary.