SENACON publishes new Ordinance to ensure consumers protection at concerts, festivals and events during periods of high temperature
In brief
On August 27, 2024, the Brazilian National Consumer Secretariat (SENACON, in Portuguese) published Ordinance No. 44/2024, setting out strategies to guarantee consumer health protection at concerts, festivals and large-scale events during periods of high temperature.
In more detail
The recent SENACON Ordinance, considering the presence of high temperatures in recent years in Brazil, has once again established guidelines to guarantee the health of consumers at venues and events during periods of high temperature.
The Ordinance stipulates that the companies responsible for producing the events must guarantee and ensure:
- Free access to bottles for personal use, containing water for consumption at the event by consumers, as well as providing drinking fountains or distributing containers with drinking water, through the installation of “hydration islands” easily accessible to all those present, in any case at no additional cost to the consumer;
- That both the food and beverage outlets and the free water distribution points are located in strategic areas of the venue in order to facilitate access by consumers, taking into account the physical structure and the estimated number of participants; and
- The physical space and structure needed to enable the rapid rescue of event participants in the event of health-related complications or other dangerous situations.
The purpose of the recently published Ordinance is similar to that set out by SENACON in Ordinance No. 35/2023, which also provided for the protection of consumers at events with exposure to heat, but which has already been revoked due to the expiry of the established period of validity.
Under the terms of the new Ordinance, it will be up to state and municipal consumer protection agencies to monitor the prices of mineral water sold. The selling of water at the venues, however, does not exclude the companies’ obligations mentioned above to guarantee the health of consumers at events.
The new Ordinance is valid for 120 days and, at the end of its term, there will be a new assessment of the climatic conditions, with a view to extending or revising the measures set out above.
