National Budget Law 2023: Argentine Legislative Branch Seeks to Increase the Fines Established in the Consumer Protection Law

On October 25, 2022, the Chamber of Deputies passed the draft bill of the National Budget for the Fiscal Year 2023, which establishes modifications to the Consumer Protection Law No. 24240 (CPL). The draft bill No. CD-25/22 must now be discussed in the Senate.

Section No. 119 of the draft bill amends section No. 47 of the CPL, increasing the fines and modifying the publication of administrative sanctions. The amendment increases as well the cap for punitive damages.

The law still in force establishes fixed fines ranging from ARS 100 to ARS 5,000,000. The new amendment proposes implementing a system of variable values. Thus, the fines may be between 0.5 and 2,100 consumer baskets (CBT) for household No. 3, an index INDEC publishes monthly.

As reference, in September 2022 INDEC estimated the CBT to be ARS 134,853.03. In this scenario, both the national authority (the Secretariat of Domestic Trade) and local authorities that have adhered to the CPL sanctioning regime could impose fines ranging from ARS 70,000 to ARS 280,000,000 (USD 430 to USD 1,735,000, at the current exchange rate). It must be borne in mind, however, that changes in the CBT could be significant if the inflationary trend continues.

In addition, the new amendment proposes that the accessory sanction (publishing the resolution applying a sanction or a summary of the facts that gave place to it, the type of infraction committed, and the sanction applied) should be done by the means most appropriate for its publication, as deemed by the enforcement authority. This amendment would enable sanctions to be published by means other than the newspaper advertisement currently established.

It should be noted that the amendment was not part of the original bill the Chief of Cabinet submitted to the Congress. The draft bill is expected to be discussed in the Senate during the upcoming months.