Old electronics: the store is obliged to take them back

This is the law that answers what to do with the TV, computer or phone that no longer works. Its central idea is extended responsibility: whoever put the equipment on the market answers for its fate, and the store that sold it to you is obliged to take it back. For the consumer there is no procedure or application: there is a right to return and a duty on the store to accept it and to tell you beforehand.

Any consumer in Puerto Rico with electronic or cell equipment they want to return or discard. The law defines "retailer" as a natural or legal person who sells or leases equipment to a consumer, and Section 6.01 clarifies that the duty to receive also covers **orphan equipment** — that of a brand whose manufacturer no longer answers — and **re-manufactured** equipment. You need not have bought the equipment at that store in every scenario: Section 10.01 speaks of the retailer that sold or leased the device, but the procedures the law asks of anyone seeking the Certification expressly include a procedure for handing cell equipment from the consumer to a retailer **not necessarily the same one the device was acquired from**, when about to buy or lease a new one.

• Having electronic or cell equipment that reached the end of its useful life, or that you simply decided to return or discard. The law puts both scenarios in the same sentence.Verified against the official source

• None the law requires from the consumer. What must exist on the other side is the information at the point of sale and on the internet page identified in the annexes to the sale, lease or service contract.

1. 1

   Step 1: The retailer is obliged to receive it

   This is the sentence to cite at the counter. Section 6.01 says manufacturers, importers and exclusive distributors in Puerto Rico of electronic and cell equipment shall be responsible for the fate of the electronic equipment once it reaches the end of its useful life **or the consumer decides to return or discard it**. And it continues: they shall coordinate with the retailers who sell this equipment, **who shall be obliged to receive it, including orphan equipment, and re-manufactured equipment**, once the consumer who acquired it decides to return or discard it. Three things worth noting. First, the trigger is not only the equipment breaking: it is enough that **you decide** to return or discard it. Second, the retailer’s obligation is written as an obligation, not a courtesy. Third, it expressly covers orphan equipment, which is exactly what nobody wants to receive.

2. 2

   Step 2: They must tell you in the store

   Section 6.03 turns the previous obligation into something you can verify by looking. Electronic equipment retailers must provide consumers information about recycling benefits and the opportunities the industry provides for this process, as well as promote and encourage it. And it says where: the information **must be displayed in a visible and accessible place for the consumer at the point of sale** and on an internet page identified in annexes to the sale, lease or service contract, referring to the opportunities offered for recycling and proper disposal of used equipment. And it closes with the most useful part: **this information shall include the statement of the company’s obligation to accept the electronic equipment once the consumer discards it**. That is, the store does not only have to take your equipment: it must have posted, in plain view, a notice saying it is obliged to.

3. 3

   Step 3: Cell phones have their own article

   Section 10.01 says that when a consumer needs to dispose of a cell device, they may hand it in — **without this constituting an obligation or limitation** — at facilities made available by the cell phone retailer that sold or leased the device. That parenthetical matters: it is a right of yours, not a duty, and it does not limit you to that route either. That said, precision is needed with the rest of the article, because its tone changes. Sections 10.02 and 10.03 are written for the retailer **who wishes to obtain the Certification this Act offers**: that is who shall identify, designate and maintain an area at their place of business available for the delivery, receipt and storage of used phones, and who must provide an adequate acceptance and collection system. That is, those two sections are conditional, not general, and we do not present them as if they bound every cell phone retailer.

4. 4

   Step 4: What that system includes when the retailer seeks Certification

   Worth knowing because it describes what a certified store should be able to offer you. Section 10.03 lists, without limitation: a procedure for returning used cell equipment from the consumer to the retailer who sold or leased it to them; a procedure for handing cell equipment from the consumer to a retailer **not necessarily the same one the device was acquired from**, when about to buy or lease a new one; procedures so that, when a new device is delivered or shipped from the retailer to the consumer, the consumer’s used device can be delivered or shipped to the retailer for reuse, recycling or disposal, **at no cost to the consumer**; procedures for cases where a service provider sells prepaid phones through merchants not exclusively dedicated to electronics or telecommunications, so the consumer hands the used device directly to the service provider; identification of the reuse, recycling or proper disposal methods to be used; and information for the consumer about recycling benefits and the opportunities the retailer or, failing that, the Authority provides.

5. 5

   Step 5: Who must be registered, and where

   That same Section 6.01 closes with an industry-side requirement explaining why the system should exist: every manufacturer, importer and distributor of electronic and cell equipment in Puerto Rico must register with the Environmental Quality Board, submitting a letter of intent to engage in selling electronic equipment and evidence of adopting a Recycling and Disposal Plan. And Section 6.02 adds something useful for the public: the Board and the Authority shall maintain an official registry of entities or organizations wishing to obtain the Certification this Act provides, and **that registry must be kept updated and available to inform the public** and entities interested in using their services, through the internet and by printed copy. We name those entities as the law names them; the compilation we read is Rev. 15 April 2024 and we assert no reorganizations we did not verify.

There is no office to apply to: the right is exercised at the store. Take the equipment to the retailer, and if they say they will not receive it, cite Section 6.01, which says retailers **shall be obliged to receive it**, including orphan and re-manufactured equipment, once the consumer decides to return or discard it; and Section 6.03, which requires the information displayed at the point of sale to include the statement of the company’s obligation to accept the equipment. The law mentions the Environmental Quality Board as the body manufacturers, importers and distributors register with, and alongside the Authority as who maintains the public registry of certified entities. What we do not publish: which agency a complaint about a retailer refusing to receive is filed with today, or the procedure or deadlines, because the articles we read do not regulate it and we did not read the rest of the law or its regulations.

• Throwing the equipment in the trash without knowing the retailer is obliged to receive it.
• Believing the obligation only applies if the equipment broke: it is enough that the consumer decides to return or discard it.
• Accepting that they will not take orphan equipment: Section 6.01 expressly includes it, alongside re-manufactured equipment.
• Not checking whether the recycling notice is displayed at the point of sale, which is a Section 6.03 requirement.
• Assuming everything the law says about cell phones binds every store: much of it is conditioned on the retailer seeking Certification.
• Thinking you must hand the phone in at the store that sold it: Section 10.01 says you may, without this constituting an obligation or limitation.

These are the government pages this guide is based on.

• Departamento de Recursos Naturales y Ambientales (DRNA)

  DRNA

  bvirtualogp.pr.gov

• Department of Natural and Environmental Resources (DRNA)

  DRNA

  www.drna.pr.gov