Argentine Antitrust Authority closes cartel investigation

On October 21 2008 the Secretariat of Domestic Trade (Secretaría de Comercio Interior) issued a final decision following the prior report of the Antitrust Commission, closing a cartel investigation involving Total and Repsol subsidiaries in Argentina.

Although the Antitrust Commission initially considered prima facie accredited the existence of a market allocation agreement between the investigated companies, it reversed its initial position when issuing its final report, concluding that the absence of collusion had been proven by the evidence gathered after the accusation.

This decision is in line with the criterion recently established by the Federal Court of Posadas in a similar case, where the standards of evidence for collusive practices were substantially raised.

M. & M. Bomchil acted for one of the defendants.

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