Desastres climáticos e vulnerabilidade agravada nas relações de consumo : deveres especiais de prevenção e resposta dos fornecedores

Abstract

This dissertation is delimited to analyzing the impacts that climate catastrophes project on consumer relations, emphasizing the intensification of suppliers' duties and consumers' rights provided for in the Brazilian Consumer Defense Code (CDC) as a means of safeguarding consumers who find themselves in a situation of exacerbated vulnerability. In light of this, the study's research problem is: to what extent the growing predictability of climate disasters imposes special duties of prevention and response on suppliers in consumer relations, especially given the aggravated vulnerability of the affected consumers? To this end, it contextualizes the intensification of climate disasters by using the example of the floods that occurred in the State of Rio Grande do Sul in May 2024. A qualitative, deductive-analytical method is adopted through documentary research, featuring an analysis of legal doctrine, academic articles, legislation, and jurisprudence regarding the aggravated vulnerability of consumers in climate disasters. The dissertation is structured into two chapters, in which it explores the concept of the risk society, the floods" particularly in Rio Grande do Sul" and the connection between Environmental Law and Consumer Law. The second chapter focuses on identifying abusive practices and their occurrence during the calamity, as well as on suppliers' duties under the CDC in consumer relations, while addressing the liability of suppliers for potential damages caused. Consequently, this research concludes that climate disasters do not constitute an automatic or absolute justification for dismissing the civil and contractual liability of suppliers. On the contrary, the occurrence of climate catastrophes imposes the expansion and intensification of their fundamental duties toward the consumer "such as the duties of information, cooperation, and prevention" and reinforces objective good faith, aiming to mitigate social damages and safeguard consumers in their condition of aggravated vulnerability, however, they depend on an analysis of the specific cases and the supplier's capacity within the consumer market. [resumo fornecido pelo autor]