Consumer Contracts: Abusive Clauses Administrative Control

The Undersecretariat of Consumer Protection and Fair Trade issued Disposition 753/2025, published in the Official Gazette on July 7, 2025, repealing Resolution 9/2004 of the former Technical Coordination Secretariat. This Resolution provided a non-exhaustive catalog of terms considered abusive in consumer contracts from key sectors such as healthcare, mobile communications, and banking. In this way, Disposition 753 aims to avoid redundant or overlapping regulatory provisions, avoid excessive regulation, and streamline the monitoring and administrative control of abusive terms and conditions.

Why was the Resolution repealed?

The repealed Resolution complemented Resolution 53/2003 (still in force) of the former Secretariat for Competition, Deregulation, and Consumer Protection, which includes a large but non-exhaustive list of clauses that are prohibited in consumer contracts and that would be deemed non-binding. Including such clauses may expose providers to administrative proceedings, preliminary injunctions, and the sanctions established in Law 24240 article 7 (warnings, fines, confiscations, closure of establishments, among others).

Just like the repealed Resolution, Resolution 53/2003 is part of the broader and open-ended legal system for controlling the incorporation and content of abusive terms in contracts, applicable to both adhesion contracts in general (article 984 et seq. of the Civil and Commercial Code) and to consumer contracts (article 1117 et seq. of the Civil and Commercial Code, and articles 37, 38, and 39 of Law 24240 and its Regulatory Decree 1798/94).

Moreover, this protective regulatory framework has been strengthened over time by various special regulations governing contracts between providers and users in these relevant sectors:
 

• Healthcare: Chapter IV of Law 26682, Decree 1993/2011, and Resolution  2400/2023 of the Superintendence of Health Services, which establishes the mandatory minimum terms for comprehensive healthcare plans.
• Information and Communication Technologies services (ICT): Resolution 733/2017 of the former Ministry of Modernization.
• Banking. articles 1384, 1388, and 1414 of the Civil and Commercial Code, along with various regulations issued by the Argentine Central Bank.

 What does this change?

This change does not diminish the level of consumer protection. On the contrary, the government is seeking a more coherent and coordinated framework, aligning general and sector-specific regulations. Consumer protection remains firmly supported by a non-exhaustive “blacklist” of abusive clauses provided under Resolution 53/2003, the open-ended clauses of the Civil and Commercial Code, and Law 24240, among other regulations.

Furthermore, the consumer authority still holds its powers to monitor and enforce compliance with the regime of abusive clauses (Law 24240, article 38). These efforts are expected to be complemented and coordinated with other enforcement authorities of specific sectors.

What should providers do?

Although the repeal of Resolution 9/04 seeks harmonization of the administrative control system, providers must still review the terms they use in their contracts and ensure they comply with both general consumer protection rules and the specific regulations applicable to their industry. This includes considering that administrative approval of standard contracts does not preclude their judicial review at a later stage.