Consumer rights

Not happy with your bank? Angry customers soon will be able to file complaints with a new Financial Services Ombudsman’s Office, which begins operating in November.

Mother's Day, celebrated on Friday in Costa Rica, is one of the country's most popular – and lucrative – holidays, with some businesses offering month-long special pricing on items and services. But a study released Monday by the Economy Ministry found that more than a quarter of businesses inspected in the San José area failed to follow the rules on promotional sales.

The Constitutional Chamber of the Supreme Court, or Sala IV, on Friday ordered the suspension of a July 1 hearing at the Telecommunications Superintendency (SUTEL) during which the agency intended to propose that mobile Internet rates be billed according to the amount of transferred data, at ₡0.0075 per-kilobyte downloaded, instead of billing for connection speed.

President Luis Guillermo Solís has asked Guy de Teramond, a former minister of science and technology and one of the pioneers of the Internet in Costa Rica, and Alonso Castro, director of the University of Costa Rica’s Informatics Center, to help him draft an official recommendation regarding a proposed new model for pricing mobile Internet usage.

The Telecommunications Superintendency (SUTEL) on July 1 will hold a public hearing to propose a change in the way carriers charge for mobile Internet services. But angry customers are getting ready to fight back.

According to the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization, the per-kilogram price of rice in Costa Rica is the seventh highest in the world. The ranking was published in a Rice Market Monitor report released this week.