Although the draft amendment to Chile’s consumer protection law currently under review in the Senate has already passed a general vote in the Economic Committee, recent legislative debates have revealed contradictions between the bill and the country’s soon-to-take-effect personal data protection legislation. Chile’s Personal Data Protection Law No. 21.719 is scheduled to enter into force on December 1, 2026. It adopts an overall opt-out framework and assigns data protection regulatory authority to a future new Personal Data Protection Agency. In contrast, the pending consumer law amendment proposes to mandate an express opt-in model for marketing calls and marketing SMS.
The two legal frameworks directly diverge on compliance standards for marketing communications. As a result, the same marketing A2P SMS activities may be subject to dual oversight by SERNAC, the National Consumer Service, and the subsequently established data protection authority. The two laws do not provide consistent rules for determining valid consent, creating practical risks of overlapping regulation and uncertainty over the applicable law. Industry participants and legislative advisory bodies have already raised concerns, calling for provisions to be coordinated during the legislative process to prevent enforcement conflicts once the two laws operate in parallel.
From an A2P business operations perspective, until the bill completes the full legislative process and is formally enacted, Chile’s current compliance rules for marketing A2P SMS remain unchanged. Companies should continue to conduct business primarily in accordance with SERNAC’s “No Molestar” opt-out mechanism. Nevertheless, the Senate’s advancement of the bill signals that Chile’s legislature intends to raise the user-consent threshold for marketing communications. Companies providing A2P SMS services targeting Chile should not immediately switch to the proposed opt-in rules. They should continuously monitor the revised text during the Senate’s article-by-article review, focus on proposals to harmonize the bill with the Personal Data Protection Law, and update their compliance strategies only after the legislative process has been completed.
