Amendments to the Consumer Protection Law in the Province of Buenos Aires

The Provincial Code of Implementation of Consumers and Users’ Rights (Law 13133) was recently modified through Laws 15410 and 15407, published in the Official Gazette of the Province of Buenos Aires on January 10, 2023.

Law No. 15407 incorporates article 1 bis to the Provincial Code, empowering local governments to investigate, judge, and sanction the infringements outlined in the national law No. 27642 (Law on Promotion of Healthy Eating/Front Labeling). Further, such infringement will be taken into account when deciding the sanctions in article 77.

On the other hand, Law No. 15410 expands article 2 of the Provincial Code by stipulating that the protective measures regarding hyper-vulnerable consumers –those affected by causes of aggravated vulnerability, specifically including "children and adolescents, the elderly, the sick or disabled" among others with special difficulty to fully exercise their consumer rights– should be emphasized. It also includes, among other goals of government action, the development of inclusive policies and the increased protection for hyper-vulnerable consumer groups.

This amendment considerably modifies the legal authority to impose penalties, increasing the amount of the sanctions outlined in article 73 of the Provincial Code, as well as granting the authority the legal capacity to double them if the infraction was committed against a consumer or a group of hyper-vulnerable consumers.

Further, the law extends the period of establishment closure from 30 to 60 days and raises the fine amount determining a new scale of 0.5 to 5,000 minimum wages (per Resolution 15/2022 of the National Council of Employment, Productivity, and Minimum, Vital and Mobile Wage, the minimum wage is ARS 67,743 as of 1 February 2023).

To illustrate the difference, the Provincial Code previously established fines ranging from ARS 100 to ARS 500,000 (approximately, USD 0.52 to USD 2,614 at the official exchange rate), whereas the current fines are between ARS 33,871 and ARS 338,715,000 (USD 177 to USD 1,772,000 respectively).