Crítica à quantificação do mínimo existencial no contexto de superendividamento do consumidor no Decreto n. 11.567/2023

The facilitation of credit for hyperconsumption was crucial to the emergence of over-indebtedness, affecting good-faith consumers and preventing them from honoring debts without compromising the existential minimum. Its threat to human dignity led to Law 14.181/2021, which improved the Consumer Protection Code with measures to address over-indebtedness. The legislation mandated the preservation of the existential minimum 'under regulatory terms,' materialized by Decrees 11.150/2022 and 11.567/2023. However, it was set at R$ 600.00, insufficient to cover basic expenses, including the vital minimum, so that only consumers unable to ensure this amount to sustain a 'dignified life' would be considered over-indebted. Using the deductive method, the article comparatively analyzes, in relation to the constitutional construction of the right to the existential minimum, the impacts of the regulation on human dignity and the protection of over-indebted consumers, questioning its constitutionality, as the rule established an immutable and generic parameter for all cases of over-indebtedness. Finally, considering the operational nature of the existential minimum, an alternative to the threshold set by Decree 11.567/2023 is proposed, adopting a variable percentage based on the consumer's net monthly income.