The judiciary halted the resolution that prohibited adding fees to service bills.

Resolution 267/24from the Secretariat of Industry and Commerce of the Ministry of Economy established  in September 2024 a major change in the way public service companies and businesses in the country must prepare their invoices.

The text prohibited the inclusion of any item that doesn't directly correspond to the contracted good or service. In other words, it was forbidden to add fees, taxes, or other charges that distort the real price of the service.

The regulation, which granted companies a period of 30 days to comply, aimed to make receipts more transparent and prevent users from facing charges that exceed what they actually consume.

The measure was supported by Consumer Protection Law No. 24,240, which in its articles 4 and 8 bis requires providers to offer clear, detailed, and truthful information, and to maintain fair and dignified treatment toward consumers. In addition, the National Constitution, in its article 42, recognizes with constitutional status the right of users to have accurate information and to protect their economic interests.

The resolution was complemented by provisions from the National Electricity Regulatory Agency (ENRE) and the National Gas Regulatory Agency (Enargas), which also prohibited the inclusion of items unrelated to the service in electricity and gas bills.  The background was the proliferation of complaints about municipalities and provincial governments adding local taxes through essential service bills, which in practice increases the final cost for the user without transparent justification.

In this context, the Buenos Aires municipality of Escobar obtained a precautionary measure that suspends the application of Resolution 267/24 in its district.

The Federal Court of Campana, presided over by Adrián González Charvay, accepted the request of Mayor Ariel Sujarchuk, who defended municipal autonomy to establish fees through ordinances and agreements with distributors. In Escobar, the ruling means the continuation of the collection of the public lighting fee on the electricity bill.

Sujarchuk welcomed the judicial decision by stating: "This is good news for our district. Because it reaffirms the municipal autonomy that was being overrun by the national government. We respond to aggression with management. They seek to suffocate municipalities and affect our revenues, which are allocated both to current expenses and to completing many of the projects that they themselves halted".

The judicial measure, however, represents a setback in terms of transparency for consumers. The ruling favors municipalities by maintaining a practice that passes hidden tax burdens on to users  in service bills.

Instead of local governments explicitly assuming the cost of fees in their own tax structure, the judicial resolution allows these items to continue appearing hidden within essential service bills.