Mercado Livre can receive a fine of R$ 5.4 million for allowing the sale of products without approval from the National Telecommunications Agency (Anatel) in its marketplace. According to a report released by the Technoblog this Friday (30th), the regulatory body intends to hold the company responsible for the sale of irregular electronic devices.
Items without certification may not meet the quality and safety criteria for the use of radiofrequency prepared by Anatel, therefore, they represent a potential risk to the consumer. In order to reduce the availability of these products in Europe, the agency intends to assign control responsibility to the platform.
Anatel, which started the administrative process in March 2022, intended to apply a fine of just R$2,640 to Mercado Livre, but the agency adopted an alternative methodology — described in a resolution published in November last year — which generated the calculation of a new penalty with millionaire importance.
Agency documents indicate the types of items that are subject to a fine. Security cameras and baby monitors connected to the Wi-Fi network, for example, are some of the devices sold on Mercado Livre that did not pass Anatel’s certification. Cell phones and chargers are also among the irregular products.
For Anatel, it is necessary that the company integrate your third-party product announcement system into your approved item databaseso that shopkeepers can only advertise a radiofrequency item that has been certified by the agency.
Mercado Livre argues that “there is no legal obligation regarding its prior inspection of advertisements served on the platform by third parties” and reiterates its commitment to prevent misuse of the platform for the sale of irregular products. Now, the e-commerce platform requests the invalidation of the fine stipulated by Anatel.
Discussions between both entities date from 2021. At the time, Anatel was targeting irregular products that are stored in Mercado Livre distribution centers. The Federal Attorney had suggested, in an opinion issued in August of that year, that the platform participates “actively and decisively” in the commercialization of irregular products.
After closing an agreement with Grupo VIA (Casas Bahia, Extra and Ponto Frio) for the use of its database of products approved in 2021, Anatel tightened the siege against the storage of irregular goods in distribution centers of the large platforms of marketplace such as Amazon and Shopee.
In October 2021, thousands of irregular devices with an estimated value of BRL 1.2 million were seized in Mercado Livre’s distribution centers. In June of last year, the targets were Amazon warehouses in an operation that seized almost 6,000 products aimed at telecommunications without approval from Anatel.
In addition to marketplaces, the federal entity also inspects loads on carriers to identify unapproved products that may enter Europeian trade. Recently, in a joint operation with the Federal Revenue, almost 10,000 unregistered chargers were seized in Rio Grande do Sul.
