Adriana Labardini

Adriana Labardini has launched ALCONSUMIDOR, A.C., the first citizen organization (CO) in Mexico to transform the field of Mexican consumer rights through the use of class-action lawsuits as well as widespread consumer education and information campaigns.

Drawing upon her background as a successful lawyer specializing in Mexican telecommunications law, Adriana co-founded ALCONSUMIDOR, A.C., a CO dedicated to defending and promoting consumer rights. Unlike the United States, in Mexico there are virtually no organizations dedicated to educating consumers and protecting them from private sector or government abuses. ALCONSUMIDOR, co-founded in April 2006, is working towards creating a collective voice of Mexican consumers through informational campaigns paired with strategic legal action. One of the centerpieces of Adriana’s system-changing strategy is the widespread introduction of a federal procedure for class-action lawsuits to Mexico, which until now have been strictly limited to cases brought through the Procuraduría Federal del Consumidor (Profeco), the government agency in charge of consumer rights. Adriana has worked closely with legislators from all three main political parties in Mexico to advance legislation allowing class-action lawsuits on a broader and more powerful scale. ALCONSUMIDOR is also laying the foundations for a new Mexican consumer culture based on ethics, solidarity and sustainability. Adriana has launched consumer awareness and education campaigns through the internet, radio, television, and press, and she also lobbies the government on behalf of consumers as an advisor to various government agencies, including Profeco. Adriana’s goal is to make ALCONSUMIDOR the most prominent champion of consumer rights in Mexico while assisting other COs throughout the country to develop similar strategies. Her vision encompasses not only commodities and utilities but also public services and most importantly empowering consumers as economic citizens.

International bodies consistently rank Mexican companies, particularly public utilities companies, among the least competitive in the world. The dominance of monopolies or oligopolies in the telephone, internet, television, power, gas, financial services, and other sectors negatively impacts Mexican consumers, who are forced to tolerate inefficiency, low-quality products and services, high prices, and the lack of choice. Examples of rampant consumer abuses include dishonesty and insufficient transparency when dealing with customers, such as the power company’s use of inaccurate meter readings or gas stations’ filling tanks with 900 milliliters of gasoline instead of a full liter; exorbitant charges for services, such as hefty surcharges for connecting phone calls between land lines and cell phones; and unfair business practices that consumers have no means to challenge, such as the power to unilaterally modify contracts by companies without giving customers the opportunity to seek redress.

Not only does lack of competition harm consumers, but it also allows inefficient and corrupt business practices in Mexico to flourish. Seven decades of single-party rule until the 2000 election enabled crony capitalism to take root, as businessmen were rewarded for close relationships with powerful politicians, rather than for offering the best products and services to their customers. Although Mexico has begun to consolidate its political democracy, structural barriers to true competition remain entrenched in the provision of public services. Many service providers and businesses continue to flaunt the rule of law without fear of government sanction.

Further, Profeco operates another monopoly: that of standing to bring a class action suit involving consumer issues. No citizen acting as a class member may be a representative of the class nor bring a lawsuit. In 15 years Profeco only filed three lawsuits, and the first was just recently in 2007.

To further complicate matters, the majority of Mexican consumers are disorganized and uninformed about these issues, heightening their vulnerability to unchecked business interests. There are virtually no COs that educate Mexican consumers or defend their collective rights against constant abuses by service providers. The lack of a vibrant consumer culture similar to that of the U.S., along with a dearth of effective legal tools like class-action lawsuits to hold the private sector and government accountable to consumers, has ensured that the power balance remains tipped in favor of businesses. As a result, public utilities companies and other businesses are largely free to act with impunity at the expense of ordinary Mexicans, especially the poor; often hardest hit by extortionary rates and arbitrary service.

ALCONSUMIDOR pursues three lines of action to create a consumer rights movement in Mexico. First, the CO aims to develop knowledgeable, informed consumers who are aware of their rights as well as ways to seek redress if their rights are violated. Second, Adriana is working to design and implement public policies and laws that are favorable to Mexican consumers, including a constitutional amendment to eliminate Profeco’s monopoly on class-action lawsuits. Third, ALCONSUMIDOR provides legal counsel for specific cases involving consumer rights.

In terms of consumer education, ALCONSUMIDOR has launched a growing website and a blog within the online edition of Reforma, one of Mexico City’s main newspapers. The website, which attracts over 11,000 monthly hits, publishes articles about specific abuses of consumer rights, provides useful tips for consumers, links users to other online resources, and advises individual consumer complaints on a case-by-case basis. In a country where reliable information is difficult to find, ALCONSUMIDOR.org serves as a comprehensive, centralized resource for consumers. In the medium- to long-term future, Adriana plans to design a school curriculum to educate children about consumer rights, launch a research center on consumer issues, and create a consumer-friendly certification program and a consumer bill of rights. Her goal is to eliminate the collective passivity that has long characterized Mexican consumers as a broad group.

Given her training and professional experience as a lawyer, Adriana naturally sees great strategic value in a legal approach to securing consumer rights. Adriana has convinced Profeco, which is severely understaffed, that relinquishing its monopoly on class-action lawsuits will both better defend consumer rights and ease its institutional burden. In November 2007, ALCONSUMIDOR, Profeco, and ITAM co-organized an international conference on class-action lawsuits with the principal objective of drafting a constitutional amendment that would empower groups other than Profeco to bring class-action lawsuits to court. The bill has the support of two parties in Congress but is facing major resistance from large corporations and financial institutions and will require much more citizen awareness. The approval of the constitutional amendment and or Procedural Act would create a historic opportunity for ALCONSUMIDOR and others to defend consumer rights through strategic class-action litigation. Adriana has been representing consumer interests in negotiation tables with industry, commerce, government and financial leaders and meets frequently with legislators and other stakeholders in the amendment process—including business leaders, who seek her out to understand the implications of class-action lawsuits. She is prepared to take the issue to the media, President Felipe Calderón, and the International Arena should the amendment fail to pass the Mexican congress.

The Supreme Court of Justice has also been supportive of the initiative and academia throughout the country has started to show more and more interest on this collective access to justice system. Adriana has begun to identify individual lawyers and firms that can partner with ALCONSUMIDOR to support class action lawsuits and aims to establish a public interest law firm expressly dedicated to consumer protection issues.

In addition to pushing for class-action lawsuits, Adriana collaborates with Profeco, the Federal Telecommunications Commission (Cofetel), and the Federal Competition Commission (Cofeco)—all federal agencies charged with protecting consumer interests—to develop public policies geared towards consumer needs. All the successes that ALCONSUMIDOR scores through class-action lawsuits and lobbying these government agencies will automatically have a national impact given their federal jurisdiction. Moreover, Adriana believes that alliances with local COs throughout Mexico are critical to igniting a national consumer rights movement; ALCONSUMIDOR is a voting member of the International Telecommunication Users Group (INTUG) and also aspires to become a voting member of Consumers International and other international consumer associations, thus linking ALCONSUMIDOR to global consumer rights movements.

ALCONSUMIDOR, A.C., co-founded by Adriana and Daniel Gershenson is dedicated to legal action on behalf of consumers as well as consumer education. To date, Adriana and Daniel have managed ALCONSUMIDOR’s operations with the help of law students and other volunteers but without paid staff. They have funded ALCONSUMIDOR’s Class Actions Congress with personal savings and contributions and in-kind donations from Profeco, the U.S. Embassy, and the Instituto Tecnológico Autónomo de México (ITAM), a private university in Mexico City.

Adriana was born and raised in a suburb of Mexico City and graduated from “Escuela Libre de Derecho a well known Mexican law school. As a student, she became interested in the legal aspects of the telecommunications industry, especially the ways in which the law can promote technological advancement rather than merely restrict it. She completed a prize-winning thesis on satellite communications law and eventually pioneered a telecommunications law practice at the private firm Sánchez-Mejorada Velasco y Valencia, S.C., where she worked for sixteen years. During this time, Adriana received a Fulbright Scholarship to study an LL.M. degree at Columbia University in New York and also served as an external consultant to the Mexican telecommunications ministry during the drafting of the Telecommunications Act and Regulations.

From 1999 to 2003, Adriana was chief of staff at Cofetel, the federal agency charged with regulating the telecommunications industry. As she pushed for more regulatory transparency at the agency, she became increasingly concerned about injustices within the Mexican telecommunications sector. She realized that a handful of fabulously wealthy Mexican businessmen were becoming richer at the expense of ordinary Mexican consumers, and the resulting inequality troubled her enough to quit Cofetel in search of a solution.

While contemplating her options, Adriana spent a year at the University of North Carolina as a Hubert Humphrey Fellow, focusing her studies on bottom-of-the-pyramid theories and practices and public policy for Internet connectivity. She was inspired partly by her experience at UNC and partly by Jane Patterson a wonderful North Carolinian leader. Upon her return, she founded ALCONSUMIDOR and CENTRO de INVESTIGACION DEL CONSUMO Y EL CONSUMIDOR with Daniel Gershenson, a Mexican philanthropist and devoted citizen she met through a mutual friend upon her return and whom she considers a kindred spirit. Largely due to her work at ALCONSUMIDOR, Adriana was appointed to Profeco’s Consumer Advisory Board and to the editorial board of the prominent Mexico City newspaper Reforma in 2007. She is considered one of Mexico’s foremost experts in the legal aspects of consumer rights and telecomm regulation and policy and is quickly emerging as a force for change in this field.

Starting in February 2009 Adriana is teaching a brand new Consumer Rights course at CIDE’s law school.