Competition defense in Argentina once again provided a scene worthy of a Hollywood-administrative farce. It all began when lawyer Guillermo J. Tiscornia, a former judge in the economic criminal court, filed a formal complaint based on a journalistic chronicle that raised alarms in the industrial and energy sectors.
The note, published by Total News Agency on January 28, warned about a possible anti-competitive practice linked to the importation of pipes from India for a strategic project associated with Vaca Muerta. Tiscornia's presentation relied on the Competition Defense Law, arguing that if the described facts were proven, it could constitute a violation of current regulations.
Since the new National Competition Authority (ANC), created by Law 27.442, has never fully become operational, its functions continue to be exercised by the historical National Commission for the Defense of Competition. Tiscornia, who knows the ins and outs of the judicial and administrative system from the inside, filed a well-founded technical complaint.
However, the surprise came not from the defendant or the market, but from the ANC itself. The organization —or someone claiming to speak on its behalf— responded with a curious letter that will go down in the anthology of bureaucratic magical realism. The email, written in an amiable tone and signed by no one, introduces itself as coming from the "National Competition Authority."
A secret agent explains that what Tiscornia describes could actually be framed as a possible dumping practice, and that for this, one should not denounce to the ANC, but to the National Commission for Foreign Trade (CNCE). Thus, the body does not take the complaint, does not forward it ex officio, but limits itself to telling the complainant how he should have done his job.
"Dear Sir, Thank you for contacting the National Competition Authority (ANC). We are sending you a brief guide about different anti-competitive conducts... We also send you instructions to file complaints before the ANC."
The paradox is complete: the body supposedly meant to defend competition seems to practice a refined form of administrative incompetence, delegating responsibilities without assuming any. Both the CNCE and the ANC depend on the Ministry of Economy.
The final result is simple yet eloquent: a serious complaint about a possible dumping case in a strategic sector ended up trapped between unsigned emails, condescending instructions, and referrals that no one took the trouble to carry out. Bureaucracy, meanwhile, continues to compete with itself... and wins by a wide margin.
