The national government will launch the organism in charge of authorizing the mergers and acquisitions of companies or determine if a player in a market has dominant positions. This is the Competition Defense Authority that is forced to give a verdict when an operation involves A business volume that exceeds approximately US $ 104 million.
This was announced by the Secretariat of Industry and Commerce through a statement. According to the dependency of the Ministry of Economy of the Nationit’s about complying with A legal mandate of more than 25 years which provides for the creation of a Autarchic entity to understand in the matter.
The Executive Power regulated the Public background and opposition tender for the preselection of officials that will form the National Competition Authority.
It will work as a Decentralized and autarkic organism that will replace the current National Competition Defense Commission, In order to comply with the mandate of the Law 27,442 of competition defense.
Through joint resolution 1/2025 published This Friday at the Official Gazette, The requirements are established, the evaluation procedure and the regulations to participate in the public tender that will select the upper members of the National Competition Authority. The mandates will be for five years with the possibility of re -election for a single time.
The National Competition Authority must be made up of 5 Court members, among which the president and four vowels are. The secretary in charge of the Ministry of Anticompetitive Behaviors and the Secretary in charge of the Secretariat of Economic Concentrations will also be competed.
The designation of the members of the agency will be carried out through a public background and opposition tender that will carry out a jury composed of the Minister of Economy, the Attorney General of the Nation, a representative of the National Academy of Law and a representative of the Argentine Association of Political Economy.
It is not the first time that it is about conforming This agency, which has to define cases such as the purchase of the Argentine subsidiary of Telefónica by the Clarín Group.
Competition Defense: Macri could not
During the government of Mauricio Macri was approved the current legislationwhich replaced the previous Law of Defense of Competition, dating from the time of Carlos Menem.
The official who carried out that task was Esteban Greco, a lawyer specialized in the teaching subject of the University of Buenos Aires. Assumed at the beginning of the management of the Government of Cambiemos, advanced with the reform that was approved by Congress and then began the process of choice and designation of the authorities.
The final designation of officials It requires the approval of the Senate, which receives the specifications presented by the Executive Power. Macri arrived at the instance of presentation of the proposals on the end of his mandate.
Upon arrival Alberto Fernández to the National Government in 2019 appointed the Ministry of Production to the economist Matías Kulfas, who decided to stop the process and withdraw the folds from Congress under the argument that there were irregularities in the selection of the designated people. His questioning was that the proposals of officials were repeated for different positions.
Then, Alberto Fernández He appointed lawyer Rodrigo Sebastián Luchinsky as president of the National Competition Defense Commission (CNDC)through a decree, but did not initiate the process of designation of the court in accordance with what the law demanded.
What is the defense of competition for
The Competition Defense Law It prohibits any act that limits, restricts, falsee or distorting the competitionprovided that it can be damage to the general economic interest.
Some of the behaviors you pursue are:
- Price setting agreements
- Horizontal distribute zones, markets, customers and supply sources
- Confert or coordinate positions in tenders or competitions
- Prevent, hinder or hinder third people entry or permanence in a market or exclude them from it
- Tied practices.
- Predatory prices.
Fusion and acquisition control: the telephone case
The law provides that CTRANSACTIONS ARE CONSACTED ECONOMIC CONCENTRATIONS When they are in the control taking by: fusion; trade fund transfer; acquisition of actions; and acquisition of certain and certain assets.
All this is matter of intervention against the announcement that Telefónica de España sold him to the Clarín Group Its Argentine subsidiary considering that it is already owner of Telecom.
The economic concentration requires the approval of the court provided that the operation exceeds a certain volume of business that currently dIt is exceeded $ 102,228 million to current values equivalent to about US $ 104 million.
Source: Ambito
