The Collective Moral Damage in Consumer Relationships: Characterization, Comparison Between the Brazilian and Colombian Systems and the Vision of the Superior Court of Justice in Brazil

Abstract

This article proposes to discuss the collective moral damage in consumer relations, focusing on the current concept of moral damage; the open character of the category of personal rights, which also cover the diffuse and collective rights; the characterization and the specifics of collective moral damage to consumer law; the comparison with the Colombian system, instituted by Law 1480 of 2011, and finally, their understanding in the recent law of the Supreme Court in Brazil. The methodology used in the investigation was the bibliographic review and the documentary examination, through which legislative and jurisprudential sources were observed. The investigation concluded that the collective moral damage in consumer relations means the injury that affects the moral patrimony of the community, leading to an immediate reduction of collective quality of life; that the Brazilian and Colombian system of liability for defective products have many similarities, and that although the Colombian system does not expressly provide for compensation for collective moral damages, they are covered by Colombian law; and finally, that there was a progressive reception of full compensation for damages collective morals by recent decisions of the Superior Court of Justice, regardless of the possibility of individual measurement of the damage, or of the existence of evidence that there was pain, feeling or psychological damage to individuals.