EL SALVADOR Law and Practice Contributed by: Marcela Mancia, IDEAS IP
Regarding costs, according to the Ministry of Govern - ance, for authorisation and certification, a payment order in the amount of USD550 must be provided after presenting the requisite documentation for bingos, raffles, contests, trivia, sweepstakes, lotteries, etc. Article 7 of the Organic Law of the National Char - ity Lottery establishes that, when the authorisation request is granted, the beneficiary will have to pay USD51 within three business days after the notifica - tion of acceptance and receipt of the payment order. Any company or person organising a sweepstake, contest, etc, must meet all requirements within 15 business days prior to the commencement of advertis - ing, as per Article 5 of the Organic Law of the National Charity Lottery. Other laws may apply depending on the municipality in which the contest or sweepstake will take place (eg, the municipal law of San Salvador). 7.4 Free and Reduced-Price Offers The regulations that may apply to free or reduced- price offers include the Consumer Protection Law, the Advertising Self-Regulation Code and the Medicines Law. Any advertiser that promulgates an offer or price reduction must be able and willing to comply with it in a verifiable manner. The advertiser must also specify any limitations. Once the inventory subject to the offer or price reduction is exhausted, the promotion can no longer be advertised. 7.5 Automatic Renewal/Continuous Service Offers There are no specific laws that apply to automatic renewal/continuous service offers, although the gen - eral rules regarding contracts establish that, if a con - tract is signed and a clause of automatic renewal is established, the marketer or entity is allowed to con - tinue charging unless a written termination is signed or the parties come to an agreement in respect of terminating the contract. For example, if a marketer is hired to be in charge of a company’s marketing, social networks and oth - er public media, the contract will be understood to be automatically renewed if there is no agreement
between the parties with respect to (early) termina - tion. Similarly, with respect to social media, if there is a clause (or any part of a clause) stating that parties agree to automatic renewal, charges for advertising will lawfully continue.
8. Artificial Intelligence 8.1 AI and Advertising Content
There are no specific rules in connection with the use of artificial intelligence to develop advertising content in El Salvador. 8.2 AI-Related Claims There are no special rules related to making claims that a product is developed through or powered by AI in El Salvador. However, virtual assistants are often used by telecommunications companies and banks. 8.3 Chatbots There are no special rules related to the use of chat - bots, although they are often used by telecommunica - tions companies and banks. 9. Web 3.0 9.1 Cryptocurrency and Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs) There is a special Bitcoin Law in El Salvador since Bit - coin is a national currency. However, this law does not establish special regulations in regard to the advertis - ing, marketing or sale of Bitcoin, although it states that digital exchange houses are considered as Bitcoin or dollar exchange houses whose usual activity is the buying and selling of Bitcoin through an electronic platform or computer applications at the prices deter - mined by market supply and demand. Regarding the digital wallets for Bitcoin offered by the state, to guarantee that the general population have the opportunity to participate, banks must provide their services as exchange platforms in such a way that they do not generate commission for the end users of said wallets, in accordance with the regula - tions issued by the central reserve bank ( Banco Cen‑ tral de Reserva de El Salvador BCR) for this purpose.
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