Argentina's AAIP suspends a debt collector's database over calls

Argentina's AAIP suspends a debt collector's database over calls

2 November 2026: Argentina's Agency for Access to Public Information (AAIP), the country's data protection authority, has suspended the database of 5 ON LINE S.R.L., a debt collection firm, until its handling of personal data complies with the law. The investigation, opened in April, followed complaints that the company contacted debtors' relatives, friends, colleagues and neighbours to press for payment.

Not yet independently verified. AAIP's notice gives no disposition numbers or dates for the individual decisions, and the Mercado Pago step is an investigation opened by the authority, not a finding against the company. We will update this when it can be confirmed, and remove this note.

One suspension, several cases opened

The agency used the same announcement to set out a wider push on collections under Law 25.326, Argentina's personal data law:

• a formal sanctions proceeding (sumario) against RDC Collections;
• an inquiry opened on the agency's own initiative (investigación de oficio) into Mercado Pago;
• formal demands (intimaciones) to Estudio Palmero de Belizan & Asociados S.A., GCA Group S.A. and Impulsa Partners;
• warnings (apercibimientos) to Banco de Galicia y Buenos Aires S.A.U. for not supplying information the agency asked for in an investigation into a request for erasure under Article 16 of the law.

A suspended database is a heavier tool than it sounds for a collection agency, whose whole business runs on the debtor files it holds. It stays in place until AAIP is satisfied that the processing has been brought into line.

Creditors are responsible too

The agency's notice stresses a point that affects banks, fintechs, telecoms and retailers more than the collectors themselves: the duties under Law 25.326 bind both the collection firm and the company that hands it the personal data. Passing a debtor list to an agency does not move the responsibility for what happens next.

For any company in Argentina that outsources collections, that suggests a review of the contract and the brief: which contacts the agency may use, whether third parties such as family and employers are excluded, how erasure and access requests reach the agency, and how quickly the creditor can produce what the regulator asks for, since Banco Galicia's warning was about exactly that.

A push for sector codes of conduct

AAIP also urged the collections sector to draw up codes of conduct under Article 30 of the law, which allows associations to adopt rules the agency can register. It pointed to the United Kingdom's ICO, Brazil's ANPD and South Korea's PIPC as authorities that already work this way. A registered code would give creditors a standard to write into contracts rather than negotiating contact rules agency by agency.

Sources

• AAIP: La AAIP sancionó a empresas por incumplimientos a la Ley N° 25.326 (Spanish), 2 November 2026