BOGOTA (Reuters) – Colombia’s commerce regulator said on Friday it will investigate mobile applications Rappi, Uber Eats, iFood and Domicilios.com for failure to fulfill delivery times, delays in returning money and other alleged problems on Mother’s Day.
Colombia has been holding a nationwide coronavirus lockdown since late March, leaving consumers stuck at home and reliant on apps for deliveries of food and other gifts for Mother’s Day, which was celebrated on Sunday. Users have complained of delays or orders that were never delivered.
The Superintendency of Industry and Commerce has asked the apps how many orders they expected to receive for Mother’s Day, how they had prepared to handle them and what procedures they use to estimate delivery times, it said in a statement posted on its website.
The regulator also asked the firms to outline how they make modifications to promised delivery times and their customer refund procedure.
“If any conduct is found that violates consumer rights, like misleading or insufficient information, lack of quality or suitability of goods and services, ignorance of the right to retraction or reversal of payment or another infraction of the terms of the Consumer Statue, it could lead to fines of up to 2,000 minimum monthly salaries,” the statement said.
That fine is equivalent to about $445,000.
Uber and Rappi told Reuters they did not yet have any comment on the investigation, while Domicilios.com and iFood did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
(Reporting by Luis Jaime Acosta, additional reporting by Nelson Bocanegra in Bogota and Gabriela Mello in Sao Paulo; Writing by Julia Symmes Cobb; Editing by Dan Grebler)
