Public Call Opening: A Step Closer to a Pre-Closing System
The Secretary of Industry and Trade issued a public call for vetting candidates who wish to become members of the Argentine Competition Authority.
The Secretary of Industry and Trade (SIyC) published Resolution 119/2025[1] in the Official Gazette on May 6, 2025, taking a significant step toward the creation of the Argentine Competition Authority (ANC) and the transition to a pre-closing merger control system, provided for in the current Antitrust Law 27442.
The Resolution opens a public call for the vetting process of candidates interested in becoming members of the ANC to apply for the positions of president, member with a law diploma, member with a university diploma or postgraduate studies in economic sciences, the Economic Concentrations Secretary, and the Anticompetitive Conduct Instruction Secretary. This initiates the procedure in the new regulations for the vetting process for choosing the highest authorities of the ANC, approved by Joint Resolution 1/2025,[2] issued by the SIyC and the Secretary of State Transformation and Public Service, and published on March 14, 2025. Exhibit I of the Resolution also establishes the terms of the call and the profiles defined by the appointed jury to fill the positions.
This Resolution is complemented by other recently published administrative resolutions, mainly Resolution 93/2025,[3] published on April 16, 2025, which established the opening of the vetting process and the composition of the jury; and Resolution 514/2025,[4] published on April 24, 2024, which appointed the Vetting Process Secretary members.
According to the tentative schedule established in Resolution 119/25, the vetting process is estimated to last approximately 60 administrative working days as of the end of the application process and admission of candidates, which may be extended for no more than 15 administrative working days. The Resolution also establishes these stages:
- Application process: from May 19, 2025, to June 2, 2025.
- Closing of the application process and admission of candidates: until June 17, 2025.
- Evaluation process and publication of the order of merit and shortlist of candidates: until July 18, 2025.
- Subsequent stages: once said steps have been completed, the process will continue with additional administrative stages, including the analysis of potential appeals, the intervention of the Anticorruption Office, the publication of the selected persons’ data, and their communication to the Argentine Senate.
Argentina’s current system for controlling economic concentrations is still a post-closing one. This is because, although the Antitrust Law provides for a pre-closing system, its article 84 states that the pre-closing system will become enforceable one year after the ANC becomes operative, but the ANC has never been created. The new Resolution and future resolutions are concrete steps toward the transition to the pre-closing system, since they aim at appointing the ANC members that would finally make it operational. This would lead to significant changes in terms of competition in Argentina, given that the parties to a transaction will have to obtain the competition authority’s authorization before closing the transaction.
If the transition takes place, Argentina would align with most countries in the world, offering greater legal certainty to economic operators and increasing the effectiveness of the measures implemented by local competition authorities.
This insight is a brief comment on legal news in Argentina; it does not purport to be an exhaustive analysis or to provide legal advice.