2023 Laws of Puerto Rico › TITLE TWENTY-SEVEN - Public Service (§§ 1 — 2641) › PART II - Communications (§§ 265 — 539) › Chapter 19 - Puerto Rico Telecommunications Act of 1996 (§§ 265 — 272) › Subchapter III - Regulation and Supervision (§§ 269 — 269l) › § 269j-1 - Cases of damages filed by the users

The Telecommunications Regulatory Board shall have primary and exclusive jurisdiction for adjudicating any damages and losses claim caused by any natural or juridical person to a user, except for claims between telecommunications and cable companies, as a result of violations of the provisions of this chapter, the regulations approved by the Board and the service contract between the user and the telecommunications and cable company for a maximum sum of five thousand dollars ($5,000) per incident. The term “user” shall include those persons who receive telecommunications and cable services from companies that are not telecommunications and cable companies. In those cases the Telecommunications Regulatory Board shall have primary and exclusive jurisdiction. In the case of claims over the established maximum compensation claimed, the Board shall have primary and exclusive jurisdiction to determine whether there has been a violation of this chapter, its regulations and/or the service contract. If after a hearing on the merits has been held, the Board determines that there has been a violation, it shall issue a resolution and order describing the same. Once the determination is final and binding, the user may file a suit for damages and losses with the Court of First Instance accompanied by a certified copy of the resolution and order of the Board. The court shall determine whether damages and losses have occurred as a result of said violation and shall grant those established through sufficient evidence. In both cases the Board shall call for at least one mediation hearing to try to achieve a speedy and fair solution to the claims of the users. Regardless of what has been provided in any other provision of this or any other law, the Board shall have primary exclusive jurisdiction for elucidating any class suit filed or to be filed by the users after the effective date of this act for violations of the provisions of this chapter or the regulations of the Board or for claims related to telecommunications and cable services, provided they are not between telecommunications and cable companies. The total compensation that may be granted in these cases shall never exceed the amount between five million dollars ($5,000,000) or half percent ( 1 / 2 %) of the assets of the defendant according to its books, whichever is less. The provisions of §§ 3341—3344 of Title 32 shall not apply to the class suits herein mentioned. The Board shall approve regulations to adjudicate cases of class suits, which should be in agreement with the parameters established by the jurisprudence for those purposes. In the performance of its duty of adjudicating controversies related to damages and losses, the Board shall comply with the following:
(1) The Telecommunications Regulatory Board, in harmony with §§ 2101 et seq. of Title 3, known as the “Uniform Administrative Procedures Act”, shall approve separately, within ninety (90) days following the approval of this act, regulations for handling the complaints of the users in which indemnity is claimed for damages and losses caused as a result of violations of the provisions of this chapter, the regulations approved by the Telecommunications Regulatory Board and/or the terms of the service contract of the company.
The regulations approved by virtue of this chapter shall include sufficient guarantees of due process of law that shall govern the adjudicative procedure, the introduction of evidence and the discovery of proof. At the same time adjudicative procedures shall be established to allow speedy and fair solutions.
(2) The right to require discovery of evidence is hereby recognized to those parties in any complaint filed with the Telecommunications Regulatory Board in which compensation is claimed for damages and losses caused by violations of this chapter. The procedure shall be conducted pursuant to the provisions of the regulations approved to those effects by the Telecommunications Regulatory Board in compliance with this section.
(3) The Telecommunications Regulatory Board is hereby directed to publish all its determinations about complaints for damages and losses caused by violations of this chapter. The provisions herein set forth shall not be interpreted to mean that the decisions of the Telecommunications Regulatory Board on such claims shall establish a precedent that binds the Telecommunications Regulatory Board in subsequent cases. However, prior decisions of the Telecommunications Regulatory Board that have been published pursuant to this chapter may be used as guidelines for estimating any compensation for damages and losses in a subsequent case.
History —Sept. 12, 1996, No. 213, added as § III-12-A on Nov. 4, 2005, No. 138, § 1.