FEDERASUL, the Retail Federation of Rio Grande do Sul (FAGV), and the Retail Federation of RS have joined forces to request Governor Eduardo Leite to veto Article 3 of Bill No. 378/2019, approved on Tuesday, the 25th, by the Legislative Assembly of Rio Grande do Sul.
The aforementioned article imposes the mandatory recording of all telephone calls made for debt collection, with the requirement to store and provide the recordings to consumers upon request.
While the need to protect consumers against abusive practices is acknowledged, the requirement to record all telephone collections creates a significant obstacle for small and medium-sized businesses in Rio Grande do Sul.
According to the entities, this measure represents a new bureaucratic and financial barrier, especially at a critical time when many small businesses are recovering from losses caused by climatic events and still face high delinquency rates.
The main argument of the business entities is that implementing the measure will require substantial investments in recording, storage, and call retrieval infrastructure, which could make operations unfeasible for many micro and small businesses, which, in most cases, conduct collections directly and lack sufficient resources to bear such costs.
Furthermore, the entities emphasize that federal legislation already mandates call recording in regulated sectors, such as telecommunications, banking, and customer service. This means imposing a similar rule for all businesses, without considering their size and characteristics, may be excessive and disproportionate.
The request to veto Article 3 of Bill No. 378/2019 aims to preserve the economic viability of micro and small businesses in Rio Grande do Sul, which continue to play an essential role in job and income generation, especially during recovery periods after successive climatic events.
