{
  "id": "informality-types",
  "title": "The three types of informality",
  "chartNumber": null,
  "report": {
    "title": "Smuggling: The Role of the State and E-commerce Platforms",
    "publisher": "Insight LAC",
    "authors": [
      "Ana Basco",
      "Paula Garnero",
      "Lautaro Ramirez"
    ],
    "url": "https://estudios.insightlac.com"
  },
  "sources": [
    {
      "organization": "Insight LAC, elaboración propia (Tabla 1)",
      "publication": "Contrabando: el rol del Estado y de las plataformas de e-commerce",
      "year": 2026
    },
    {
      "organization": "Centro de Estudios Tributarios, Universidad Austral",
      "publication": "Diagnóstico de informalidad de la economía en Argentina, Informe N°3",
      "year": 2025,
      "url": "https://www.austral.edu.ar/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/CET-INFORME-N%C2%B0-3-INFORMALIDAD_v4.pdf"
    },
    {
      "organization": "ASIPI",
      "publication": "Estudio sobre el impacto de la falsificación y el contrabando en el desarrollo económico y social de América Latina",
      "year": 2025
    }
  ],
  "provenance": "verified",
  "note": null,
  "url": "https://estudios.insightlac.com/ecommerce/en/#tipos-de-informalidad",
  "attribution": "Source: Insight LAC, “Smuggling: The Role of the State and E-commerce Platforms”",
  "columns": [
    "Dimension",
    "What it is",
    "Legislation",
    "Level in Argentina"
  ],
  "rows": [
    [
      "Tax informality",
      "Failure to meet registration, invoicing or filing obligations: the economic unit is not registered in the tax regime that corresponds to its activity, remains in a category that does not reflect its level of operations, or fails to meet its invoicing and filing obligations.",
      "Tax Procedure Law 11,683 (registration and filing obligations before ARCA), Law 24,977 on the Simplified Regime (Monotributo), rules of the General VAT and Income Tax Regime, possibly General Companies Law 19,550",
      "VAT evasion went from 60% of potential revenue in 2017 to 42% in 2023."
    ],
    [
      "Customs irregularity: Smuggling (customs offence)",
      "Bringing goods in or out through artifice or deception that prevents or hinders control by the customs service: concealment, use of unauthorized crossings, false documentation or other manoeuvres aimed at evading duties, prohibitions or restrictions. What defines smuggling is the intent to evade control, not the type of product: it may involve genuine or counterfeit goods, permitted or prohibited. When the value of the goods does not exceed the threshold set by law, the conduct is treated as minor smuggling and penalized as an administrative infraction, not as a crime.",
      "Customs Code, Law 22,415, articles 863 to 876 (smuggling offence) and article 947 (minor smuggling)",
      "Illegal trade accounts for 5.06% of Argentina's GDP."
    ],
    [
      "Customs irregularity: Customs infractions (customs irregularity)",
      "Failure to meet customs obligations without the artifice or deception that characterizes smuggling. It includes inaccurate declarations of the quantity, quality, value, origin or tariff classification of goods, failure to meet the conditions of regimes such as temporary importation, and breaches of formal obligations. Under-invoicing, for example, is usually treated as an inaccurate declaration. It may result from error, negligence or deliberate conduct that does not amount to smuggling, and it is penalized administratively, mainly with fines. All smuggling is a customs irregularity, but not every customs irregularity is smuggling.",
      "Customs Code, Law 22,415, Section XII, Title II (customs infractions), including inaccurate declaration (article 954)",
      "Illegal trade accounts for 5.06% of Argentina's GDP."
    ],
    [
      "Product markets (grey and black): Prohibited or restricted goods (black market)",
      "Goods whose production, import, possession, distribution or sale is prohibited, or subject to a special control regime for reasons of security, health or public order. The illegality stems from a prohibition or restriction on the product itself, not from the channel through which it is sold or the seller's tax status. Depending on the product, the prohibition may be absolute (the good cannot be sold at all, as with narcotics) or relative (it can only be sold with specific authorizations and through authorized channels, as with firearms or prescription drugs). Lawful goods that do not meet general technical or regulatory requirements, such as type approvals or certifications, are not part of this category.",
      "Criminal Code; Law 23,737 on narcotics; Law 20,429 on firearms and explosives; Law 16,463 on medicines, as applicable",
      ""
    ],
    [
      "Product markets (grey and black): Counterfeit products (black market)",
      "Goods that reproduce, imitate or use without authorization trademarks, distinctive signs, designs or other elements protected by intellectual property rights, so that they are presented as, or may be perceived as, original products or products linked to their legitimate owner. Unlike prohibited goods, the type of product may be perfectly lawful: the illegality stems from the counterfeiting, the unauthorized use of third-party rights or the misrepresentation of the origin or authenticity of the good.",
      "Trademark Law 22,362 / Intellectual Property Law 11,723 and Decree-Law 6673/63 on Industrial Models and Designs, as applicable",
      ""
    ],
    [
      "Product markets (grey and black): Sale of genuine products outside official distribution networks (grey market in the strict sense)",
      "Sale of genuine products outside the distribution networks that are official or authorized by the manufacturer. What makes it \"grey\" is the sales channel: the product is authentic, but it is sold by actors that are not part of the brand's official distribution network. This dimension is independent of tax, customs and regulatory compliance. A product sold on the grey market may have been imported legally, with the corresponding duties paid, and meet all the technical or health requirements that apply in the local market. At the same time, the grey market may overlap with other forms of irregularity. For example, a genuine product sold outside the official network may have entered through smuggling or may lack the type approval, electrical certification, health registration or other authorization required for its sale.",
      "There is no specific public regulation: it is governed by private agreements (for example, contracts with official distributors)",
      ""
    ],
    [
      "Product markets (grey and black): Sale of products without regulatory clearance (grey market in the broad sense)",
      "Often called \"grey markets\", this covers the sale of genuine products in a lawful category that do not meet one or more of the regulatory requirements for sale in the local market. These requirements may include technical type approvals, safety or energy-efficiency certifications, health registrations or authorizations, mandatory labelling or other conditions set by sector regulation. The irregularity does not stem from the nature of the product or from a general ban on selling it, but from the failure to meet a regulatory condition needed for its legal sale. It also differs from the grey market in the strict sense, since a product can be sold outside the manufacturer's official network and still meet local regulatory requirements, or be sold by an authorized distributor and still show some regulatory non-compliance.",
      "ENACOM type approval: Argentina Digital Law 27,078 and Resolution 57/2026 / Electrical safety certification: SIC Resolution 16/2025 / Toy safety certification: Resolutions 163/2005 and 313/2025 / Auto parts certification: Law 24,449 and Decree 196/2025 / Health authorization for food, supplements and cosmetics: Law 18,284 (Argentine Food Code) and ANMAT regulations",
      ""
    ]
  ]
}