On April 23, 2013, the Mexican Department of the Economy published in the Official Journal of the Federation the "DRAFT of Mexican Official Standard PROY-NOM-024-SCFI-2013, commercial information for packaging, instructions and warranties for electronic, electric and home appliance products." Its purpose is to make the contents of the Draft known so that all interested parties may submit comments to the draft within 60 calendar days following its publication, pursuant to the methods indicated therein. Therefore, comments to the draft standard may be considered at the meeting of the National Advisory Committee for User Safety, Commercial Information and Trade Practices, prior to the publication of the new rules as a final standard. Upon its publication as a final standard, this new standard will cancel and replace the current standard, NOM-024-SCFI-1998. Nevertheless, one should consider that the published draft does not include major changes to the text of the existing standard, because as evidenced by its content and as reported by the General Director of Standards of the Mexican Department of the Economy, the new draft is focused on including the necessary basis to protect consumers against the imminent conversion by the television industry to full adoption of digital signal transmission and discontinuance of transmission by means of an analog signal. The rest of the standard will remain the same. It is expected that by 2015 transmission by means of analog television signal will be discontinued in its entirety, which will render any television reception device that does not read digital television transmissions obsolete. For television manufacturers who do not utilize digital television transmissions, the new standard provides for the obligation to include the following notice on their packaging and labels: "DOES NOT receive digital television signals." This notice must be displayed in a clear and visible manner and must be made known to the consumer prior to the purchase, requiring the placement of a label adhered to the screen or a notice on the border of the television while on display. The inclusion of this requirement in the proposed draft is consistent with the changes previously made to NOM-024-SCFI-1998 which became effective in April 2012, by means of which other commercial notices were required with respect to televisions in compliance with the adoption by Mexico of the A/53 standard of the Advanced Television Systems Committee in 2004. However, the notice requirements are now clearer. The draft still requires sellers and distributors to verify compliance before offering the products to the public, as it considers them jointly and severally liable along with domestic or foreign manufacturers.
