Regulating What Is Already Regulated: A Critique of the Proposed Amendment to Article 2.1 of the Regulations under Law No. 31557

On October 21, 2026, the Ministry of Foreign Trade and Tourism (MINCETUR) published Ministerial Resolution No. 382-2026-MINCETUR, ordering the publication of a draft Supreme Decree amending the Regulations under Law No. 31557, approved by Supreme Decree No. 005-2023-MINCETUR, and granting a 15-calendar-day period for the submission of comments.

Apparently, MINCETUR has discovered that it needs to amend a regulation to grant itself a power already conferred upon it by law. A surprising regulatory innovation: regulating what is already regulated.

I have only reviewed the first of the numerous proposed amendments. And I must admit that it is difficult to identify any legal purpose it serves.

The first amendment seeks to introduce a power that MINCETUR already possesses under the express provisions of the General Administrative Procedure Law.

Specifically, the proposal seeks to add the phrase "as well as the management and resolution of complaints" to Article 2.1, as though MINCETUR currently lacked the authority to receive and process complaints concerning the activities it supervises.

A simple review of the Consolidated Text of Law No. 27444 would have revealed the complete redundancy of this amendment.

Article 116.1 recognizes the right to file complaints before the competent authority. Article 116.3 requires the authority to conduct preliminary inquiries and, upon establishing the plausibility of the reported facts, to initiate the corresponding supervisory proceedings ex officio. Article 240.1 expressly provides for the initiation of supervisory activities following a complaint.

Receiving, assessing, and processing complaints is not an additional power that must be expressly incorporated into each sector-specific regulation. Rather, it is an authority already encompassed within the supervisory powers established by law.

To suggest otherwise would lead to the absurd conclusion that every public authority vested with supervisory powers must also have its competence to receive complaints separately recognized in its own regulations.

Furthermore, the expression "resolution of complaints" could raise questions regarding MINCETUR's jurisdiction over disputes between operators and players that may fall within the competence of other authorities.

This amendment creates no new powers, addresses no legal gap, does not improve regulatory supervision, and adds absolutely nothing to the legal framework. It merely reproduces obligations already established by law.

Regulatory amendments should address concrete problems, rather than become exercises in legislative duplication that consume public resources without any practical benefit.

It is concerning that the draft begins with an amendment whose redundancy could have been identified through an elementary review of the existing legal framework.

For these reasons, I recommend deleting the proposed amendment to Article 2.1 in its entirety and retaining the current wording.

Previously published in: https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:7519559092554670080/