2023 National Budget Law: New Amendments to the Consumer Protection Law.

The National Administration Budget Law for fiscal year 2023, published in the Official Gazette on December 1, 2022, amended the Consumer Protection Law, originally Bill CD-25/22 (more information available here).

Article No. 119 of the Budget Law amends article No. 47 of Consumer Protection Law No. 24240 (CPL) regarding the increase in the amount for fines and the publication of the administrative sanctions. The amendment also increases the cap for punitive damages, since article No. 52 bis of the CPL refers to article No. 47, which determines the amount of the fine.

Following the amendments, those fines imposed by both the national enforcement authority (the Secretariat of Trade) and local authorities adhering to the CPL sanction regime will amount to between zero point five (0.5) to two thousand one hundred (2,100) total family food baskets (CBT) for a household type 3. This is an index INDEC (the National Institute of Statistics and Censuses) publishes monthly.

For guideline purposes, INDEC estimated that in November 2022, the CBT was ARS 153,505.04. This means that authorities could impose fines ranging from ARS 76,000 to ARS 322,000,000 (USD 440 to USD 1,800,000 at current exchange rates).

On the other hand, the new amendment established that the ancillary sanction (publishing the sanction or a summary of the facts that originated it, the type of infraction committed, and the sanction applied) should be done through the most appropriate means of publication, as the enforcement authority deems adequate. This amendment enables sanctions to be published by means other than that established in the former text (advertising in newspapers).