In the last months of 2022 and at the beginning of 2023, many amendments have been made to administrative regulations, which include the following:
I. Amendment to the Unique Text of Administrative Procedures (UTAP) of INDECOPI - Resolution No. 000081-2022-PRE/INDECOPI
This amendment significantly reduces the reply period of the following administrative processes carried out by the Distinctive Signs Office (“Dirección de Signos Distintivos” or “DSD”) of the National Institute for the Defense of Free Competition and the Protection of Intellectual Property (“Instituto Nacional de Defensa de la Competencia y de la Protección de la Propiedad Intelectual” or “INDECOPI”):
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II. Amendment to the Consumer Protection and Defense Code – Law No. 31601
This law included item l) in section 1.1 of Article 1 of the referred Code to guarantee the assistance by a human person in case a provider offers automated support systems to its consumers (automated channels via WhatsApp, chatbots, telephone calls, among others).
Thus, consumers can receive a more personalized service, which did not occur before given that there was no obligation to provide support through a human assistant if support was provided by means of Artificial Intelligence.
In this regard, it is worth mentioning that the failure to comply with this obligation may cause providers to commit an administrative infraction for infringing consumers’ rights. In this case, the company would be subject to a fine of up to 450 tax units; i.e., up to S/ 2,227,500.00 (considering that the value of 1 tax unit for 2023 is S/ 4,950.00), imposed by INDECOPI.
III. Amendment to the General Administrative Procedure Law – Law No. 31603
This law amended Article 207 of Law No. 27444 (General Administrative Procedure Law), reducing the reply period of an appeal from 30 to 15 business days.
IV. Amendment to the UTAP of INDECOPI – Resolution No. 000013-2023-PRE/INDECOPI
This resolution reduced the reply period of an appeal in 14 administrative processes to 15 business days, in accordance with the amendment set out by Law No. 31603.
The processes referred to in the preceding paragraph are listed below:
- Processes carried out by the Copyright Office:
- Registration of amendments to the registration certificate issued by the Copyright Office;
- Operation authorization for collective management entities of copyrights, related rights, and/or collection entities;
- Registration of databases, compilations, anthologies, and similar data;
- Registration of phonograms;
- Registration of licenses, assignment of rights, and any other transfer of copyrights and related rights;
- Multiple registration of works or productions;
- Registration of members of governance bodies and the General Director of collective management entities;
- Registration of artistic works and applied art works;
- Registration of literary works;
- Registration of audiovisual works and productions (cinematographic, television, video, multimedia, webpages, and other recordings of moving images);
- Registration of artistic performances;
- Registration of contracts, agreements, and other similar documents for reciprocal representation among collective management entities;
- Registration of software or computer programs.
- Processes carried out by the Commission of Bankruptcy Proceedings:
- Registration as administrator or liquidator of debtors subject to a Regular Bankruptcy Proceeding carried out by the Commission of Bankruptcy Proceedings.
1 This process refers to a change of holder due to transfer, merger, split-off, and business restructuring, where aplicable, as well as to changes in the registered address of the holder, preventive annotations, and licences to use a distinctive sign.