Abstract

In this chapter we analyse the evolution and current status of the price control regulation in Chile. It should be noted that Chilean law does not provide for general rules for an external price control, so neither the Civil nor the Commercial Code regulate mechanisms granting powers to any judicial or administrative authority to review the economic terms of a contract. Exceptionally, the Civil Code provides rules for the invalidation of certain contract due to laesio enormis, but, in the context of a sales agreement, it is limited only to those referred to real estates. Special rules have been incorporated to the Chilean legal system since the last decades of the twentieth century, once disregarded the model of a public regime of price fixing, mainly focussed in the need for a stronger consumer protection. However, such amendments do not include a regulation of “standard term contracts”, but only to abusive clauses in “contracts of adherence”, which do not expressly incorporate the possibility that judge may intervene in the economic terms of the contract.