PS proposes law guaranteeing consumers right to speak with human agent

Vulnerable populations including elderly, disabled, and digitally illiterate consumers face particular disadvantage when unable to access human customer service representatives.

As automated systems increasingly mediate the relationship between companies and citizens, Portugal's Socialist Party has proposed a quiet but consequential correction: the legal right to speak with a human being when you need one. Filed in parliament on May 28, the bill amends a 1996 consumer protection law to ensure that no automated menu, chatbot, or virtual assistant can permanently stand between a person and human assistance. It is a modest proposal in form, but it names something larger — the growing cost, borne most heavily by the vulnerable, of designing efficiency without accounting f

PS proposes law guaranteeing consumers right to speak with human agent

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