Consumer rights in Chile: claims and damages under Law 19,496

Lawyer in charge: Javier Díaz Gurruchaga · Updated October 2026

If a company sold you a product that failed, charged you what it should not have, provided a service badly or did not honour what it offered, the Consumer Protection Law (Law 19,496) lets you sue it before the Juzgado de Policía Local (local police court). In that case you ask for the company to be fined and, above all, to compensate your losses: what you lost, what you had to spend and non-material damage.

We bring these claims in Viña del Mar, Valparaíso and Quilpué. Before suing, we review your documents and tell you whether there is a case and how much can be claimed with good grounds.

Who is protected

The consumer: any person or company that, for a price, acquires, uses or enjoys a product or service as its final recipient, even if someone else paid for it. The other party must be a supplier acting in the course of business. Purchases between private individuals, such as a used car bought from a neighbour, are not covered.

The most common breaches

• Faulty products (legal warranty). Within six months of receiving the product, you choose between free repair, replacement or a refund (articles 20 and 21). You choose, not the shop.
• Offers that are not honoured: a published price not respected at the till, a promotion not applied, a delivery date not met (article 12).
• Poorly provided services that cause you harm through negligence (article 23).
• Misleading advertising (article 28) and unfair terms in standard-form contracts, which the court can declare void (article 16).
• Unjustified service cuts of internet, phone or TV already contracted (article 25).
• Online purchases: a right of withdrawal within ten days, or ninety if the company did not send written confirmation (article 3 bis), with exceptions.

What you can claim

In the same filing you can ask for the company to be fined, for it to perform what it promised, for the refund of what you overpaid and for compensation of all material and non-material damage, a basic consumer right (article 3, letter e).

How the case works

• Where: at the local police court of your own address or the company’s, at your choice (article 50 A). If you live in Viña del Mar, Valparaíso or Quilpué, the case is heard here even if the company is based in Santiago.
• The hearing: the case is decided at a single hearing for answer, settlement and evidence. What is not proved that day can no longer be proved.
• The judgment: the law gives the judge thirty days to rule.

Do you need a lawyer?

It is not mandatory: you can file and appear in person (article 50 C). If the amount is small and the case simple, we will tell you. A lawyer makes sense when there are damages to quantify and prove: non-material damage and loss of profit are not presumed, and the company comes with its own lawyer.

How long you have

• Six months from receiving the product, for the legal warranty (article 21).
• Two years from the end of the breach, for the action to sanction the company (article 26). The period is suspended while a complaint is pending before the company, a mediator or SERNAC.

SERNAC or court?

A complaint to SERNAC (the national consumer agency) is free and sometimes enough, but SERNAC cannot order the company to pay compensation or fine it. Only a judge can. Complaining first is not required to sue, but it leaves a record and suspends the two-year period.

More detail, with the articles of the law, on our Spanish page (in Spanish).