Among the first measures announced by the Government, included in the Decree of Necessity and Urgency (DNU), there is the repeal of various laws regulating Internal Trade. Although compliance with these laws is limited in practice, this implies the non-existence of these rules in the commercial channel a significant reversal of the benefits acquired by consumers.
One of the laws that is set to be repealed is Gondola law. This is the national law 27.545 created by former MP Elisa Carrió, approved at the beginning of 2020, and its purpose expand the range of product offerings and offer resistance to price increases.
One of its pillars is add as suppliers to supermarkets micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs), family, peasant and indigenous farming sectors, cooperatives and mutuals. That is, aspire to it product diversity is greater to avoid market concentration which exists in various areas of mass consumption. This law, for example, establishes that a brand’s products cannot occupy more than 30% of the shelf. And that for a certain product there must be at least some five different suppliers.
This law was highly contested by supermarkets, but was ultimately regulated by decree 991/2020 and was only implemented in 2021, although its compliance was relative.
Another repealed law is the supply law.: The President said it should be repealed “so that the State will never again attack the property rights of individuals.” This is a rule, sanctioned during the third mandate of Juan Domingo Perón, which allows the State to intervene in the markets, set maximum prices and, finally, sanction companies when it is deemed necessary to accumulate goods or increase prices, for example.
This law was used at the time by the former Minister of Commerce, Guillermo Moreno, who filed a hundred complaints against the Shell oil company for price increases.
Other laws that appear in the DNU as likely to be repealed are those of Buy national (Law No. 27,437) which establishes an Argentine purchasing regime so that local suppliers have priority in placing their products on the market. Also the law on commercial promotionl which establishes the methods of displaying the sales price e of the unit price of the products offered by the merchants. This is an essential tool for comparing the price of similar products, especially in the current inflationary environment.
Finally, the Government also intends to repeal the Price Observatory, created in 2022 by the Secretary of Commerce of the Alberto Fernández administration, Matías Tombolini, which “has the objective of monitoring, detecting and systematizing the prices and availability of products in stores. That is, it aims to identify behaviors that can distort the market in the price formation process
Source: Clarin
