At 00:00 on 17 November 2026, the suspensory regime of section 9 of Act 27442 comes into force. From that moment, a notifiable concentration must be filed and cleared before it is consummated. Until then, the transitional regime of section 84 applies, allowing a filing either before closing or within one week after it.
The Authority has received repeated enquiries on the treatment of transactions filed during that transitional period that close after 17 November. The Competition Tribunal (TDC) has settled the point as a general criterion, on the report submitted by the Secretariat for Mergers (SCE).
The applicable regime is determined by the filing date and does not change as the review proceeds. A transaction filed before 00:00 on 17 November 2026 remains subject to the non-suspensory regime of section 84, even where closing takes place afterwards: consummation does not amount to gun jumping, because the standstill obligation of section 9 does not reach transactions already filed under section 84.
The criterion cuts both ways. A transaction whose agreement was entered into before that date will still be subject to the suspensory regime if it is filed afterwards. Were the regime to change with the mere passage of time, the length of the review would become a new and heavier burden on parties who filed in due time.
To fall under section 84, the filing must be supported by a legally binding agreement between the notifying parties, signed by persons with sufficient authority, from which the obligation to implement the transaction on the notified terms arises. Letters of intent, memoranda of understanding, term sheets and non-binding offers do not meet that requirement, whatever they are called.
What is required is a signed agreement, not a consummated transaction. Closing may be subject to conditions precedent —regulatory clearances in Argentina or abroad, or other events outside the parties' discretion— without affecting the binding nature of the agreement or preventing the filing.
Application of the non-suspensory regime entails no finding on the effects of the transaction on competition, nor does it consolidate any legal position. The powers under section 14 remain intact: the Tribunal may clear a transaction subject to conditions, deny clearance, or order divestiture or the restoration of the previous situation. Consummating a transaction before a decision is issued is done at the notifying parties' sole risk.
The same question arises in every transaction filed up to 17 November 2026 that has not closed by that date. Deciding it through individual rulings would have required the Tribunal to rule repeatedly on the same point, with a risk of divergent outcomes. A general criterion gives a single answer to all cases concerned and affords predictability and equal treatment.
The Tribunal's Disposition and the Secretariat's report are available here: DISPOSITION · REPORT. Both were issued in file EX-2026-90141056- -APN-DGDMDP#MEC. The provision was published in the official gazette on September 18, 2026.