Last week, the Secretary of Commerce repealed, through Resolution 51/2024, 69 rules that regulated some commercial practices. These are the minimum and mandatory quality parameters that companies providing services to consumers must meet. And they are added to the already repealed laws on supplies, gondola and price observatory.

The explanation from Pablo Lavigne’s portfolio manager was that these rules “hindered commercial relations between citizens and promoted an interventionist role of the State”.

With the provision, the Government also put an end to the obligation for companies to report labels and labels of new products, information regimes on maximum prices, careful pricing and access to regional products in large supermarkets. “The meaning of these measures is to simplify trade, de-bureaucratize the management of the state and prevent both citizens and companies from wasting time and resources by sending information that has become useless,” according to Lavigne.

Clearly this “simplification” of the forms of marketing desired by the Government involves the dropping of some requirements that had to be satisfied – until now – both by supplier companies and by marketing channels towards users. In a relationship which, as you can see, is totally asymmetrical. So what does the repeal of these measures mean for consumers?

Ariel Caplan, consumer law expert and representative of Consumidores Libres, assures that “this resolution is part of a general policy tending to institute the lack of control of the economy“, he says. “Of the 59 resolutions repealed, “At least 20 are not related to price controls or specific economic activities, but rather to the obligation to report certain issues.”.

“In this way, not only is the economy deregulated, but the State, and through this the consumers, is deprived of the information fundamental for the implementation of public policies by the State and for consumers to be able to choose freely and adequately informed. suppliers of goods and services, which constitute a fundamental pillar of the free market”, he explains. “Moreover, adds the expert,”Some of the repeals will prevent the State from carrying out the supervisory tasks it is required to carry out under current law.

And he cites an example in the financial field. “With the repeal of the information system on the moratorium, punitive interest rates and monthly fees for administrative expenses, the repealing executive authority will not be able to monitor compliance with the maximum rates established by the credit card law for patrimonial interests (without delay, art. 16 law 25065. Even after the pruning of DNU 70/2023) which is still in force and which has not been repealed by DNU 70/2023; which is particularly serious when, pursuant to art. 50 inc. b of the Credit Card Law, the authority for the application of this law in commercial aspects is the Secretariat of Internal Trade of the Ministry of Economy.”

“So, according to Caplan, The repeal is inexplicable because as a consequence of it the secretariat itself deprives itself of essential information to exercise its obligations as an executive authority. “Since entities that charge interest in excess of the maximum permitted by law should be sanctioned, to avoid doing so, the information from which such non-compliance would result is being deliberately withheld,” he points out.

According to Pedro Bussetti, president of the DEUCO users and consumers association, the repeal of resolution no. 1033/2021 (which establishes the minimum standards that companies must respect regarding remote assistance and communication with consumers) “implies the lack of consumer protection in their consumer relationship and allows the validation of all abusive practices that the repealed law regulated and sanctioned non-compliance”.

“From now on, therefore, Consumer Associations will no longer have the right to lodge complaints with companies, as has been happening since the entry into force of the Consumer Protection Law, because the lack of a regulatory standard allows companies not to be obliged to do so,” he says.

The repealed resolution raised, among other things, the need for “dignified and respectful treatment” by suppliers; It prohibited verbal pressure and manipulation to convince potential buyers and established, among other things, that consumers have a “right to the attention of a humane person.”

The repeal of these latest resolutions adds to the impact of those already repealed, in December, on the Supply and Gondola laws. within which it also fell the access program for regional products in supermarkets.

In an important company in the food sector they underlined that “the absence of this regulation makes trading smoother. The consumer has at his disposal a very wide offer and knows perfectly well where to find each of the products”, he commented in favor of the measures adopted by the new management.

On the other hand, Daniel Rosato, president of Industriales Pymes Argentinos (IPA), said: “The gondola law was an advantage for consumers since they could find different quality and prices and also for small producers who could join the big ones marketing channels,” he says. “Repealing that law makes no sense, it was an advantage for both the producer and the consumer.”summary.