The province of Buenos Aires ordered Marcos Galperin’s company to eliminate clauses that it considers abusive in its contracts, with a fine of up to $1,815 million at stake.
Axel Kicillof’s government found a new terrain of dispute: Mercado Libre and Mercado Pago. The provincial administration formally ordered the company founded by Marcos Galperín to eliminate a series of clauses from its adhesion contracts, under threat of a fine that could reach $1,815 million. The investigation is led by the Provincial Directorate of Consumer Defense, which depends on the Buenos Aires Ministry of Production.
The trigger was forceful in statistical terms. As explained by Minister Augusto Costa, Mercado Libre accumulated more than 2,400 user complaints in the first four months of the year, a volume that made it the company with the most formal complaints registered in the province. Complaints cover issues with returns, unknown transactions, fraud and scams. But the core of the file is not in those individual cases but in something more structural: the terms and conditions that millions of users accept without reading them.
The Province points out that several clauses violate basic principles of the Consumer Protection Law. One of them enables the company to charge fees without previously informing the amount, reason or time of the debit. Another allows Mercado Libre to unilaterally modify its conditions of use, considering that the user accepts them by simply continuing to use the platform, without the need for express confirmation. Also in focus is the clause that holds the user exclusively responsible for what happens in their account, even in cases of fraud or hacking. And there is a point that has broader implications: the contract establishes that any judicial dispute must be resolved in commercial courts of the City of Buenos Aires, which in practice leaves Buenos Aires users in a more uncomfortable position to complain.
Does Kicillof’s offense have enough technical support to prosper? The legal arguments are reasonable, the terms and conditions of Mercado Libre go contrary to those established by the Consumer Protection Law. The requirement that a consumer accept charges whose amounts are unknown has a questionable legal tradition, and the principle of access to justice in one’s own jurisdiction is recognized in consumer regulations. The problem is that the company operates under a legal scheme that was built over years with little questioning, and that any process of this type has timelines that rarely coincide with political calendars.
Because context matters. Kicillof has been looking for months to show active management in the face of concentrated private sector actors, in a year with midterm elections on the horizon. Going against Mercado Libre, one of the most valued companies in the region and with a user base that includes a large part of the Buenos Aires electorate, has a political dimension that the file cannot hide. Is it a signal to consumers or is it real protection management? Probably both, although not in equal proportion.
What is certain is that the file brings to the table a discussion that digital platforms have been avoiding for years: massive adhesion contracts operate in a regulatory framework that was designed for other types of commercial relationships. The speed with which the terms of use are updated, the global scale of the companies and the daily dependence that millions of users have generate asymmetries that national and provincial consumer laws have not yet absorbed.
The Buenos Aires government has the file open and the fine figure defined. What it does not have, yet, is a clear outcome. Mercado Libre can adapt with minor changes that cushion the formal blow without altering the substance of the business, or it can challenge the process and dispute it in court.
