On January 16, 2026, the Competition Tribunal of Argentina published Resolution No. 6/2026 whereby the value of the administrative unit created as a reference by the Antitrust Law No. 27,442 (the “Antitrust Law”), has been increased to ARS 1,450.05, thereby updating both the merger control notification thresholds and the monetary penalties set forth in the Antitrust Law.
Pursuant to the Antitrust Law, both the merger control notification thresholds and the monetary penalties are expressed in administrative units, which shall be updated on a yearly basis by the Antitrust Authority following the evolution of the official consumer price index.
The increase in the administrative unit’s value has an impact on both the merger control thresholds and the monetary penalties established in the Antitrust Law. The main resulting modifications are summarized below:
(i) Updated Merger Control Thresholds
Economic concentrations must be notified to the Antitrust Authority if the combined Argentine annual net sales of the acquiring group and the target group exceed ARS 145,005 million during the preceding year (approx. USD 97.9 million considering the exchange rate in force on December 31, 2025).
Additionally, the so-called “de minimis” exemption was updated, and now otherwise reportable economic concentrations are exempted from notification if both the price of the Argentine portion of the transaction and the value of the assets to be transferred in Argentina are below ARS 29,001 million (approx. USD 19.9 million at the current exchange rate), unless where the acquiring economic group was involved in one or more economic concentrations in the same market in Argentina, which together with the economic concentration under consideration, are all jointly valued in ARS 29,001 million (approx. USD 19.9 million at the current exchange rate) during the preceding 12-month period or ARS 87,003 million (approx. USD 59.7 million at the current exchange rate) during the preceding 36-month period.
(ii) Updated Monetary Penalties
Fines for anticompetitive conducts, when these cannot be calculated using the 30% Argentine turnover or the illicit gain tests provided in the Antitrust Law, cannot exceed ARS 290,010 million (approx. USD 199.3 million at the current exchange rate).
Daily fines for breach of cease-and-desist orders, late filing, and gun-jumping practices, when these cannot be calculated by means of using the turnover test set forth in the Antitrust Law, can now amount to ARS 1,087.5 million (approx. USD 747,400 at the current exchange rate).
