BRIEFS. judicial

Trials for unfair business practices delayed

Trials for monopolistic practices have been marked by long delays and have proven to be unsatisfactory to consumers, warned lawyer Giovani Fletcher. Trials relating to such practices in the meat and flour industry, for example, were delayed for more than five years, and although some of the businesses involved were sentenced, the people most affected by their practices---consumers---never received any compensation.

Pedro Meilán, manager of the Autoridad de Protección al Consumidor, which filed a lawsuit on Monday against four milk processors, said that by law judges must now conduct hearings for 45 work days and are entitled to a 30-day extension.Fletcher expressed disbelief that such prosecutions should take so long. Lawyers for the company Controles de Inversión Publicitaria (CIP) said yesterday that, after five years of waiting, they will finally go to trial on April 15 for a case involving advertising agencies that tried to monopolize the market.