Lucas del Villar

PARTNER

Lucas del Villar is an expert in Consumer law. Between 2018 and 2022 he was the director of Chile’s National Consumer Service (Sernac), and between 2010 and 2014 he was its subdirector.

In said roles he had participation in the legislative discussion of the following laws:

  • Law N° 21.398 of 2021 named the Proconsumer Act.
  • Law N° 21.320 of 2021 that regulates extrajudicial collection actions reinforcing consumers’ rights
  • Law N° 21.236 of 2020 that regulates financial portability for financial consumers.
  • Law N° 21.234 of 2020 on the liability of financial institutions for frauds to consumers through means of payment.
  • Law N° 21.081 of 2018 on the institutional reinforcement of SERNAC, first as legislative advisor and later as main responsible officer for its implementation.
  • Law N° 20.715 of 2013, that amends the regulation on money lending operations and extrajudicial collection.
  • N° 20.555 of 2012 named the Financial SERNAC Act.
  • Law N° 20.543 of 2011 that amends the procedure for class actions in Chile.

Additionally, in April 2020, he presented before the Congress of Peru on a bill seeking to regulate the maximum interest rate system in credit operations, and in May 2020, he presented before the same entity on a bill seeking to legally establish the power of INDECOPI to manage a web technology platform for eviction or termination of mass services.

  • Diploma y Business Management, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile.
  • Diploma in Business Management and Competition Law, Universidad de Chile.
  • LL.M. in Business and Corporate Criminal Law, Universidad de Chile.
  • LL.B., Universidad de Chile.
  • Consumer Law
  • Compliance
  • Member of Chilean Bar Association
  • “Confianza e Institucionalidad para la Protección del Consumidor”, CeCo Center for Competition – UAI, 2023, digital text format available at www.ceco.cl (95 p.) with comments from academics: Sebastián Barocelli, María Carolina Corcione, Wendy Ledesma, Ernesto Muñoz, Críspulo Marmolejo, Juan José Ossa.
  • “Acciones Colectivas y Consumo Financiero” in the book Protección del Consumidor Financiero, coordinated by Gabriel Hernández Paulsen, 2022, DER Ediciones.
  • “Pilares de la Política de Protección del Consumidor en Chile”, School of Law, Ed. Universidad de Chile, 2022.
  • “Principios que informan el Procedimiento Especial para la Protección del Interés Colectivo o Difuso de los Consumidores de la Ley N° 19.496 y los desafíos legislativos que ello presenta” published by the author in the book Interés General, las Negociaciones Extrajudiciales y Juicios Colectivos en el Derecho del Consumo, (2021), by Lucas Del Villar Montt and Francisca Barrientos Camus (Dirs.), Santiago, Editorial Thomson Reuters.
  • “Ley N° 21.081 Sobre Fortalecimiento del SERNAC: nuevas herramientas y priorización de casos colectivos” in Boletín Análisis Regulatorio N°1/2019, Regulatory and Corporate Law Center, UDD School of Law.
  • “Planes de Cumplimiento en la reforma a la Ley Nº 19.496” in Boletín Especial ADECO, UDP Law and Consumption Academy. Bill to reinforce SERNAC and consumer associations (Law N° 21.081), Santiago, December 2017.
  • “Suspensión de plazos para ejercer garantías legales, voluntarias y de satisfacción por los consumidores durante la crisis sanitaria derivada del Covid-19”, published in Boletín Análisis Regulatorio N°3/2020, Regulatory and Corporate Law Center, UDD School of Law.
  • “Control judicial de cláusulas abusivas en los contratos de adhesión”. Journal of the IV Student Congress of Civil Law, Universidad de Chile School of Law, 2013.
  • Universidad Adolfo Ibañez, Master in Corporate Law course (2016 – 2023).
  • University de Chile School of Law, Diploma in Consumer Law (2018 – 2022).
  • Faculty of Law and Humanities, Universidad Central de Chile, “Consumer Law and New Technologies” (2022).
  • Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile School of Law, course: “Diploma in Expert Advisor to Companies and Individuals in Consumer Law” (2019 – 2022).
  • Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile School of Law, Diploma in “New Trends in Contracts and Damages” (2013 – 2016).
  • Law School, Universidad Diego Portales. Diploma on Consumer Protection Law (2016 – 2017).
  • Law School, Universidad Diego Portales. “Consumer Protection Law” course (2013).
  • Law School, Universidad del Desarrollo. “New Institutionality in Consumer Law” (2015 – 2017) course.
  • Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile School of Law. Diploma on Free Competition (2012, 2013 and 2023).
  • Faculty of Economics and Business FEN Universidad de Chile. Professor of Business Management Diploma (2012).
  • Counselor of the Universidad del Desarrollo’s (UDD) “Regulatory and Corporate Law Center”.
  • At the head of the Chilean National Consumer Service, the organization obtains the “Annual Award for Institutional Excellence 2019”, a remuneration recognition granted annually by the State of Chile through the Ministry of Finance and Civil Service; and in 2020 the organization obtains the prize for Innovation “Concurso Funciona!” in the Central State Administration category.
  • For his participation in the “La Polar” case, he was selected in 2011 by El Mercurio Reports as one of the 10 “witnesses to the news that marked 2011 in Chile and the World”.
  • As National Director of SERNAC, he committed and led the process of submitting Chile to the “Voluntary Peer Review of Consumer Protection Law and Policy” organized by UNCTAD UN in 2020, in which international experts and government protection agencies participated. US consumers (FTC), Germany (BVL) and Korea (KCA). Whose approval and recommendations were presented to the Intergovernmental Group of Experts in Geneva, Switzerland, July 2021. Being the first OECD member country to review its consumer protection system.
  • Member of the Probono Foundation