Regulation of Advertisements in Broadcast Media

1. Background
As will be remembered, the Audiovisual Communication Services Law No. 26,522 (“ACSL”), provides that advertisements must be domestically produced when broadcasted via open broadcasting services or on channels owned by subscription service licensees or when inserted in domestic channels (section 81, sub-section a of the ACSL).
The definition of domestically-produced advertisements comes from section 4 of the ACSL which states that programs or advertising messages produced entirely within national territory or made in the form of co-production with foreign capital, with participation of authors, artists, actors, musicians, directors, journalists, producers, researchers and Argentine technicians or residents in Argentina at a rate of no less than sixty percent (60%) of the total committed cast will be considered to have been “domestically produced." 
Furthermore, the Argentine Government, by implementing the ACSL through Decree No. 1225/2010, states the possibility of including advertisement spots of foreign origin in the mentioned media as long as there are reciprocity conditions between Argentina and the country where the advertisement comes from.
Finally, in August 2013 by Resolution No. AFSCA 983/2013, the Register of Audiovisual Advertisement for Television (“RAAT”), where the advertisements are registered as a precondition to be broadcasted, was created within the context of the Federal Authority of Audiovisual Communication Services ("AFSCA") in order to verify that an advertisement is domestically produced or, if it is an advertisement of foreign origin, such advertisement complies with the above-mentioned reciprocity conditions. The advertisement must be executed with the phrase “domestically-produced advertisement” or “advertisement of foreign origin”, followed by the registration number of the data sheet at the RAAT.

2. The ASFCA Resolution
Firstly, Resolution No. 596-AFSCA/2014 (“AFSCA Resolution”) states that it will take into account the following  in order to establish the “reciprocity conditions”: (i) the spirit of the ACSL regarding the protection of domestic production; and (ii) the advertisements registered in the RAAT during the previous year to the current year.
Afterwards, it creates an inexistent concept in the rules regulating this matter through the creation of a “quota” of foreign advertisements certifying the reciprocity conditions. So it states that once the reciprocity conditions have been invoked, accredited and analyzed, the AFSCA will authorize the exhibition of foreign advertisements to complete  forty percent (40%) of total national advertising declared at the RAAT during the previous year to the current year.
The AFSCA Resolution clarifies that since it entered into force (June 10, 2014)  registration of  advertisements in the RAAT that will be broadcasted during the space of advertisements is mandatory, a fact that is curious because the resolution that created the RAAT does not establish that the registration of  advertisements it was optional.
Moreover, regarding the nationality of foreign advertisements, it will be determined by the nationality or residence of the authors, artists, actors, musicians, directors, journalists, producers, researchers and technicians, granting nationality of  sixty percent (60%) of the total committed cast.
If sixty percent (60%) of the total committed cast does not have the same nationality or residence in common, it shall be considered that the advertisement corresponds to the State that has a majority ownership interest.
Finally, the AFSCA Resolution  set up a learning period from June 1, 2014 to August 31, 2014, and establishes that in the event of a breach in the registration or falsification in the conditions the advertisements were registered, penalties for signals or channels, advertising, agencies or advertising producers are established, as appropriate. In the case of advertising agencies, penalties will reach the suspension or revocation of the Register of Advertising Agencies and Producers.