The Federal Consumer Attorney’s Office (Profeco) asked the country’s gas stations to denounce the US software manufacturer Gilbarco for possible damages arising from a failure in the company’s dispensaries.
The agency explained that the fault is that, when downloading the dispensary’s event log and reviewing the price change records, these are not stored, according to the period established in the regulations (at least 12 months of normal operation). .
Given the inconsistency of Gilbarco’s software detected by Profeco and subsequently confirmed by the manufacturer, it is important to mention that the verification work on fuels carried out by Profeco consists of monitoring compliance with Official Mexican Standards NOM-185-SCFI -2017 and NOM-005-SCFI-2017.
Profeco points out that to date 424 procedures have been initiated for irregularities related to the log of events in dispensaries of the aforementioned brand, based in Greensboro, North Carolina. Of these, 247 procedures for violation of the law have concluded, with fines of 117.3 million pesos.
” The fault in question does not affect all the gas stations, but mainly the chains that have Gilbarco brand dispensaries , with a configuration for sale to fleets (wholesale). There are seven other dispensary brands on the market, which comply with the applicable regulations”, adds Profeco.
Profeco does not have the power to endorse the use of instruments, nor does it certify the quality of software. If non-compliance is detected –by default, in this case- the precautionary measure of immobilization is applied.
On October 8, 2020, the complete modification of the Official Mexican Standard NOM-005-SCFI-2017 entered into force, which established that gasoline and diesel dispensing service stations must have new or updated dispensaries that meet the characteristics and specifications established in said standard.
What does Gilbarco do?
Gilbarco is a major global provider of fuel dispensers, point of sale systems, payment systems, merchandising and support services for gas stations . In Mexico, approximately 50% of service stations operate with this brand of dispensaries.
Since it is the manufacturer who designates the memory capacity or the space in the software, for the recording of operations, it has the obligation to evaluate which electronic accessories are adequate for its dispatch systems to comply with the regulations.
