Argentinean antitrust authority updates merger control thresholds and monetary penalties

On January 27, 2020, the Secretary of Domestic Trade -Argentina’s current Antitrust Authority- published Resolution No. 13/2020 (1) whereby the value of the administrative unit created as a reference by the Antitrust Law No. 27,442 (the “Antitrust Law”), was increased from 26.4 pesos to 40.61 pesos, 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, unlike the previous antitrust regime where these were expressed in fixed local currency amounts and thus quickly became outdated as a consequence of inflation.

The administrative unit’s value, according to the Antitrust Law, is to be updated on a yearly basis by the Antitrust Authority following the evolution of the official consumer price index. The increase of the administrative unit’s value has an impact in the merger control thresholds as well as in the monetary penalties provided in the Antitrust Law. The main resulting modifications are summarized below:

• • Merger control

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 AR$4,061 million during the preceding year (approx. US$64.46 million taking in consideration the current exchange rate).

Additionally, the de minimis exemption was updated, and now otherwise mandatory economic concentrations are exempted from notification if both the amount of the Argentine portion of the transaction and the value of the assets to be transferred in Argentina are below AR$812.2 million (approx. US$12.89 million at the current exchange rate), unless where the acquiring group was involved in an economic concentration in the same market in Argentina valued in AR$812.2 million during the preceding 12 month period or AR$2,436.6 million (approx. US$38.67 million) during the preceding 36 month period.

• Monetary penalties

Fines for anticompetitive conducts, when these cannot be calculated using the turnover or the illicit gain tests provided in the Antitrust Law, cannot exceed AR$8,122 million (approx. US$ 128.92 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 AR$30.46 million (approx. US$483,450).

The new merger control thresholds and monetary penalties referred to above shall be in force as from January 28, 2020 until a new value for the administrative unit is adopted by the Antitrust Authority.

(1) The complete resolution is available https://www.boletinoficial.gob.ar/detalleAviso/primera/224859/20200127.