Digital Television. Modifications to Mexican Official Standards with Respect to Commercial Information for Electronic, Electric and Home Appliance Products

On April 23, 2013, the Mexican Department of the Economy published in the Official Journal of the Federationthe “DRAFT of Mexican Official Standard PROY-NOM-024-SCFI-2013, commercial information forpackaging, instructions and warranties for electronic, electric and home appliance products.” Its purpose is tomake the contents of the Draft known so that all interested parties may submit comments to the draft within 60calendar days following its publication, pursuant to the methods indicated therein. Therefore, comments to thedraft 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. Uponits 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 thetext of the existing standard, because as evidenced by its content and as reported by the General Director ofStandards of the Mexican Department of the Economy, the new draft is focused on including the necessarybasis to protect consumers against the imminent conversion by the television industry to full adoption of digitalsignal transmission and discontinuance of transmission by means of an analog signal. The rest of the standardwill remain the same. It is expected that by 2015 transmission by means of analog television signal will bediscontinued in its entirety, which will render any television reception device that does not read digitaltelevision transmissions obsolete. For television manufacturers who do not utilize digital televisiontransmissions, the new standard provides for the obligation to include the following notice on their packagingand labels: "DOES NOT receive digital television signals" This notice must be displayed in a clear and visiblemanner and must be made known to the consumer prior to the purchase, requiring the placement of a labeladhered to the screen or a notice on the border of the television while on display. The inclusion of thisrequirement in the proposed draft is consistent with the changes previously made ​​to NOM-024-SCFI-1998which became effective in April 2012, by means of which other commercial notices were required with respectto televisions in compliance with the adoption by Mexico of the A/53 standard of the Advanced TelevisionSystems Committee in 2004. However, the notice requirements are now clearer. The draft still requires sellersand distributors to verify compliance before offering the products to the public, as it considers them jointly andseverally liable along with domestic or foreign manufacturers.