The new program aims to detect advertisements or ads on websites that may violate current health regulations.
On May 4, 2020, the Official Gazette of the Argentine Republic published Resolution No. 344/20 of the National Service of Agri-Food Health and Quality (hereinafter, the “Resolution”), by which the Digital Media Inspection and Monitoring Program (the “Program”) was created.
The Program has the following objectives:
a. Ensure control, by SENASA and within the scope of its powers, of the content published on websites that market products, byproducts, and/or derivatives of animal and plant origin, as contemplated in Article 1 of Law No. 27,233.
b. Sign agreements with various public and private actors for the purpose of implementing the control referred to in section a).
c. Coordinate with the various areas of SENASA the actions to be developed for the implementation of the agreements that will be signed in due course.
d. Detect advertisements or notices made by website users that may violate current health regulations.
It should be noted that the Program was created due to the observation that numerous technology companies and websites offer e-commerce solutions, through which any person or company can buy, sell, pay, ship, and publish a wide range of products and services online. In this regard, it has been established that veterinary products, pets, non-domestic animals and animal feed, fertilizers, agrochemicals, and other products are sold through these buying and selling methods.
For this reason, the agency considered its intervention as a supervisory body in these operations necessary to prevent the sale of prohibited products or substances that could harm consumers’ health.
By entering into reciprocal collaboration agreements with various public and private sector stakeholders that allow SENASA to access those platforms/digital media that require oversight and monitoring by the Agency, SENASA will be able to access additional information on those who publish, control a sales channel to which it did not have access until now, and have a tool that expands its scope of action, which will allow it to optimize available resources and detect advertisements or notices made by website users that may be in violation of current health regulations.
Finally, it is important to note that the Resolution clarifies that the Digital Media Oversight and Monitoring Program does not entail the creation of new structures or additional budgetary expenditures for the National Government.
