Company: CRESW
Filing Date: 2025-10-24
Form Type: 20-F
Source: 0001654954-25-012195
Chunk: 229

Company: CRESUD INC
Filing Date: 2025-10-24
Form: 20-F
Item: Item 4
Chunk 229
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 economic interests in consumer relationships. Law No. 24,240 on Consumer Protection, along with its amendments, regulates various issues concerning the protection of consumers and end users within a consumer relationship, both in arrangements and contract formation. The purpose of the Consumer Protection Law, as well as the relevant parts of the Argentine Civil and Commercial Code, is to regulate the constitutional right granted to the weaker party in a consumer relationship. It aims to prevent potential abuses arising from the stronger bargaining position of products and service providers in a market economy where standardized contracts or adhesion to pre-established general clauses are common. 

For this reason, the Consumer Protection Law and the Argentine Civil and Commercial Code consider certain contractual provisions in agreements with consumers or end users to be null and void. These include clauses that:

(1)                       disort obligations or limit liability for damages.                   
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(2)   imply a waiver or restriction of consumer rights and an expansion of the seller’s rights.
(3)   impose a reversal of the burden of proof to the detriment of the consumer.               

Additionally, the Consumer Protection Law imposes penalties that can be applied independently or joinly ranging from warnings and fines of 0.5 to 2,100 times the basic food basket for a household (as published by the INDEC), to the seizure of goods, closure of an establishment for up to 30 days, suspension of up to 5 years from state supplier registries, and even the loss of concessions, privileges or special tax or credit regimes enjoyed by the sanctioned party. 

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The Consumer Protection Law and the Argentine Civil and Commercial Code define consumers or end users as individuals or legal entities who acquire or use goods or services, for a fee or for free, for final use or for their own benefit, or the benefit of their family or social group. Both laws also consider anyone who, without being a party to a consumer relationship, acquires or uses goods or services as a consequence of or on the occasion of such a relationship, for a fee or for free, for their own final use or for the benefit of their family or social group, to be equivalent to consumers.

Furthermore, the Consumer Protection Law defines providers of goods and services as individuals or legal entities, both public and private, who, professionally, even if occasionally, produce, import, distribute or market goods or provide services to consumers or users.

The Argentine Civil and Commercial Code defines a consumer contract as one entered into between a consumer or end user and an individual or legal entity acting professionally or occasionally