Presidencia de la Nación

By means of Resolution No. 98, the Secretariat of Industry and Trade of the Ministry of Economy approved the Regulation for the Implementation of the Leniency Programme written by the National Commission for the Defence of Competition (CNDC, for its acronym in Spanish).

The purpose of the Regulation is to specify the stages, procedure, and requirements to be fulfilled by a human or legal person that has incurred or is incurring in a conduct listed in Section 2 of Act 27.442 for the Defence of Competition (LDC, for its acronym in Spanish), to benefit from the exemption or reduction of the corresponding sanction, as provided for in Section 60 and 61 of the LDC and its Regulatory Decree No. 480/2018.

The regulation allows for enquiries about the availability of markers, establishes the form and content of the marker application, and the benefit claim. It also regulates the duty of confidentiality in the procedure and the duty of cooperation of applicants.

It also determines that the Leniency Unit (UC, for its acronym in Spanish) is in charge of receiving and processing leniency applications. The members of the UC will be appointed by the CNDC, and must be independent from the National Directorate of Anticompetitive Conducts, the National Directorate of Economic Concentrations and not be acting as an authority of the CNDC.

The regulation will provide a high degree of certainty on how to implement the institute created by Chapter VIII of the LDC, which will result in greater interest and participation of interested parties in availing themselves of its benefits. The CNDC expects the Leniency Programme to become an important tool for the detection, investigation and sanctioning of cartels.

It is worth highlighting that human as well as legal entities that have incurred or are incurring in a concerted conduct typified in Section 2 of the LDC, i.e. the so-called hard core cartels agreements between two or among more competitors to fix prices, restrict supply, share or divide the market or fix bids in tenders or auctions– can apply to the Leniency Programme.

The Leniency Programme will let the applicant benefit from exoneration from or reduction of the sanction, which can imply fines of up to 30% of the turnover of the offending companies in Argentina. The obtention of the benefit implies the applicant’s permanent collaboration with the CNDC, submitting information and evidence that can allow the agency to prove the existence of the cartel.

In order to make enquiries about the availability of markers, or other general enquiries about the Leniency Program, please write to the following email address: [email protected].