The Argentine Antitrust Law No. 25156 prohibits and punishes acts that limit, restrict, falsify or distort competition, or the access to the market, or represent an abuse of a dominant position in the market, which may result in damages to the “general economic interest”. Furthermore, the Argentine Antitrust Law provides for certain rules that regulate mergers and acquisitions by submitting them to a process of prior governmental authorization.

Mergers and acquisitions where the aggregate amount of the business of the involved companies exceed Pesos 200 million (i.e., approximately US$ 65 million at current exchange rate) are subject to the Law’s enforcement authority’s (the Argentine Antitrust Commission) previous authorization. Some transactions are exempted from said authorization; among them, the acquisition of a single company by a single foreign company having no assets in Argentina or shares of other companies in Argentina; or the acquisitions of companies of which the purchaser already owned fifty per cent (50%) of the shares.

In deciding on a given transaction subject to authorization under the Argentine Antitrust Law, the National Antitrust Commission may authorize the transaction, subject the transaction to certain conditions or deny the authorization.