New Regulation that Complements Fair Trade Legal Framework

On August 24, 2020, Resolution No. 241/2020 (the “Resolution”) was published in the Official Gazette. The Resolution regulates several aspects of Executive Decree No. 274/2019 on Fair Trade (the “Decree”) and also repeals Resolution No. 248/2019 of the Secretariat of Domestic Trade which previously regulated the Decree (see https://www.marval.com/publicacion/reglamentacion-del-nuevo-regimen-de-lealtad-comercial-13363), with the exception of sections 22 y 23 on legal requirements for advertisements that remains on force.

Although many aspects of the repealed resolution were kept, the following are the main changes introduced by the Resolution:

• Entrust the Sub-Secretariat of Policies for the Domestic Market (in Spanish, Subsecretaría de Políticas para el Mercado Interno) with different tasks such as:

• rule the requirements f contests, raffles and promotions of goods and services
• determine the reference that must be placed n the goods that are commercialized in Argentina or on its packaging;
• set frth the proceedings for the collection and analysis of samples as well as their final destination;
• determine the cntent and/or requirements that must be addressed to commercialize goods;
• authrize the use of different unit of measure by replacing the reference to net weight by the number of units or the phrase “sale by weight”;
• determine the bligation to inform the net weight or other unit of measures for unpacked goods.
• set frth the rules to analyze the precautionary measures of section 45 of the Decree;
• require the wner of a digital marketing channel to withdraw or cancel advertisements and/or offers of goods or services in cases of breach of the provisions of the Decree.

• Entrust the National Directorate of Policies for the Development of Domestic Trade (in Spanish, Dirección Nacional de Políticas para el Desarrollo del Mercado Interno) with the tasks of overseeing compliance with the Decree and conducting the relevant administrative investigations, which include cases of unfair competition.
• Extend from three (3) days to five (5) business days the term to fulfill any pending requirement related to complaints for breaches to the Decree.
• Remove the requirement imposed by Resolution No. 248/2019 to identify in the sanctioning decision the natural persons or legal entities involved in any violation of the Decree.

The Secretariat of Domestic Trade is still the controlling authority of the Decree. However, and following the new internal structure of the Ministry of Productive Development set forth by Administrative Decision No. 1,080 dated June 19, 2020, the Secretariat of Domestic Trade delegates through the Resolution certain tasks granted by the Fair Trade legal framework to the Sub-Secretariat of Policies for the Domestic Market (as listed above) while other powers, including the control and surveillance of the Decree, are entrusted to the National Directorate of Policies for the Development of Domestic Trade (which depends on the Sub-Secretariat of Policies for the Domestic Market), an entity that replaces the former Fair Trade Agency.