New Step Toward Creating a Competition Authority

The Secretary of State Transformation and Public Service and the Secretary of Industry and Trade issued Joint Resolution 1/2025, published in the Official Gazette on March 14, 2025.⁴ Its Annex I regulates the vetting process for choosing the highest authorities of the Argentine Competition Authority (ANC), thus replacing the regulation issued in 2019,⁵ which was never implemented.
 

I. Regulatory Framework

The Antitrust Law 27442 (Antitrust Law), issued in 2018, introduced significant changes to the structure of the Argentinian competition authority, mainly with the alleged creation of the ANC. Pursuant to the Antitrust Law, such entity should act as a decentralized and autarchic agency within the Executive Branch, to apply and control compliance with the Antitrust Law. The Antitrust Law also states that the ANC should be composed of the Competition Tribunal, the Anticompetitive Conduct Instruction Secretary, and the Economic Concentrations Secretary, and that the Executive should appoint its members through vetting processes.

Among other significant changes, the Antitrust Law introduces the transition from a post-closing merger control system to a pre-closing model, according to which parties in a transaction must obtain the competition authority’s authorization before closing the transaction. However, the Antitrust Law states that the pre-closing system will become enforceable one year after the ANC becomes operative, but this—as we explain below—never happened.

II. Practical Implementation

Despite the attempt to regulate the vetting process to select the ANC members in 2019, to date, the ANC has not been constituted, much less put to operate. Therefore, pursuant to Decree 480/2018, the Argentine Antitrust Commission (Antitrust Commission) and the Secretary of Industry and Trade continue to be the competition authorities. New authorities have recently been appointed in both agencies: on the one hand, Esteban Marzorati -who succeeded Pablo Agustin Lavigne- was appointed as Head of the Secretariat on December 17, 2024. On the other hand, Eduardo Rodolfo Montamat was appointed as President of the Antitrust Commission on March 19, 2025, after Alexis German Pirchio resigned.
Argentina’s current system for controlling economic concentrations is still a post-closing one. This is because the ANC was never created and, consequently, the one-year term the Antitrust Law stipulated never elapsed. However, the new regulation could mean a step toward the pre-closing system, since it would be aimed at appointing the ANC members to finally make it operative.

III. The new regulation

Joint Resolution 1/2025 establishes that ANC members must be appointed through a vetting process carried out by a jury composed of the Minister of Economy, the Federal Treasury Attorney, a representative of the Argentine Academy of Law, and a representative of the Argentine Association of Political Economy. Members’ mandates will be for five years, with the possibility of being reelected once.

The purpose of the vetting process is to verify and evaluate the suitability of the candidates, their knowledge, skills, competence, aptitudes, and attitudes for the position.

The process will consist of four stages: candidates must pass each one to move forward with the next. The stages are: 

1. education and professional background evaluation,
2. substantive technical evaluation,
3. evaluation through a job interview and institutional management project,
4. skills assessment.

The Executive will be in charge of appointing the ANC members, with the approval of the Senate. Likewise, the Executive may appoint interim members until it reaches an agreement with the Senate.

IV. Conclusion

Joint Resolution 1/2025 represents a significant step forward in Argentina’s antitrust legal framework, since it could mean a transition toward the pre-closing system prevailing in most countries. This would not only imply greater alignment at a global level but also with respect to the provisions of our own Antitrust Law. It would also provide greater legal certainty to economic operators and a more effective enforcement of the measures competition authorities take.

However, this new regulatory framework is only the beginning: its success will depend on its effective implementation and on the authorities’ and operators’ capacity and commitment to transition in an orderly manner from the current model to the pre-closing one.

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¹ Available at: https://www.boletinoficial.gob.ar/detalleAviso/primera/322540/20250314. 
² Joint Resolution 1/2019 of the Secretary of Public Employment and the Secretary of Domestic Trade. Available at: https://www.boletinoficial.gob.ar/detalleAviso/primera/201471/20190212.