RIGI: antitrust related aspects
Competition & Antitrust department report | RIGI: antitrust related aspects
Decree No. 749/2024, which regulates the Incentive Regime for Large Investments (RIGI, as its acronym in Spanish stands for “Régimen de Incentivo para las Grandes Inversiones”), includes several relevant aspects related to competition defense regulation.
– Article 47, subsection h) states, in line with the provisions of Article 176, subsection h) of Law No. 27,742, that the application for adherence to RIGI must include an affidavit stating that the RIGI Project will not distort competition in the local market.
Such affidavit must be supported by a technical study conducted by a lawyer or an economist with expertise in competition law, and must include, at least: (i) a description of the product or service to be offered; (ii) the definition and projection of evolution of the relevant market(s); (iii) the identification of the participants in the market(s) under analysis who might be affected by the project; and (iv) an analysis of the positive and negative impacts the projected investment could have in the relevant market.
– Article 52 states that failure to include the elements referred to in the preceding paragraph will lead to the immediate rejection of the application.
– Once the technical study is submitted, the Enforcement Authority may request that the National Commission for the Defense of Competition (CNDC, as its acronym in Spanish stands for “Comisión Nacional de Defensa de la Competencia”) issue a non-binding opinion.
Agustín Waisman, Mercedes Pando, Tomás López Bisso y Pilar Fernández Sasso