Secretariat of Commerce – Resolution No. 63/2023: Update of Mobile Units value.
Competition & Antitrust Department Report | Secretariat of Commerce – Resolution No. 63/2023: Update of Mobile Units value
Dear Sir or Madam,
Resolution No. 63/2023 of the Secretariat of Commerce (the “Resolution”), published in the Official Gazette today, updated the value of the Mobile Unit [1] for 2022 to AR$162.55.
The Mobile Unit is used as a reference unit in the Argentine Antitrust Act No. 27,442 (“AAA”) and in the Fair Trade Act passed by Decree of Need and Urgency No. 274/2019.
The update of the value of the Mobile Unit has the following impact on the above-mentioned regulations:
1) Antitrust
• Increase of thresholds that trigger merger control: (a) the Argentine turnover of the acquiring group plus the Argentine turnover of the target during the previous fiscal year must be now equal to – or more than- AR$16,255,000,000 [2]; AND (b) the price of the transaction OR the value of the Argentine assets acquired must be now equal to -or more than- AR$3,251,000,000 [3] or AR$9,753,000,000 [4] in the last 36 months in the same markets.
• The upper limit for the penalty for infringements to the AAA that the authority is entitled to set when none of the other estimation methods provided in the AAA are applicable is now AR$32,510,000,000 [5].
• Increase to AR$113,785,000 the upper limit of the daily fine [6] for late filing and for breaching an order of cessation of anticompetitive behavior or a behavioral commitment that the authority is entitled to set when none of the other estimation methods provided in the AAA are applicable.
• Increase to AR$81,275 the daily fine [7] for obstructing or hindering any investigation or failing to comply with the requirements of the antitrust authority in the time and manner required.
• Increase the range of the filing fee in the filing for merger control proceedings that may be established by the Antitrust authority to between AR$812,750 and AR$3,251,000 [8].
2) Fair Trade.
• Raises the maximum amount of the penalty of a fine to AR$ 1,625,500,000 [9].
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Notes
[1] The value of the Mobile Unit shall be updated on a yearly basis considering the variation of the Consumer Price Index.
[2] 100 million Mobile Units.
[3] 20 million Mobile Units.
[4] 60 million Mobile Units.
[5] 200 million Mobile Units.
[6] 750 thousand Mobile Units.
[7] 500 Mobile Units.
[8] 5 thousand Mobile Units to 20 thousand Mobile Units.
[9] 10 million Mobile Units.
Do not hesitate to contact us should you require any further information on this matter.
Sincerely,
Agustín Waisman
Tomás López Bisso
Tomas Kook Weskott