Overview

• The Supreme Court unanimously declared the internal minimum tobacco tax constitutional and overturned lower-court injunctions that had shielded Tabacalera Sarandí from paying since 2018.
• Justices framed the tax as serving both revenue and public-health objectives, citing WHO and OECD guidance and restricting judicial substitution of legislative tax decisions.
• The court dismissed Sarandí’s bid to use Law 27.743’s regularization framework, finding no evidence that the company had properly enrolled or provided supporting documentation.
• ARCA’s preliminary accounting puts the nominal debt at ARS 669 billion (around US$510 million), with interest and fines expected to push the total past US$1.5 billion.
• Years of successive cautelares allowed Sarandí to underprice rivals and grow its market share from about 5.6% in 2016 to nearly 38.4% in 2023, intensifying calls for market re-leveling and potential insolvency.