Sponsored content: Mercado Libre presents its second Transparency Report

The purpose of the report is to inform about Mercado Libre's efforts to guarantee the security of its digital services. In this second report, we extended the scope of the information shared and included additional data provided to the authorities in compliance with their requests for information.

Buenos Aires, October 2021 - Within the framework of a sustained growth of its ecosystem, Mercado Libre presents its second Transparency Report and confirms its vocation to build links through trust and honesty. In recent times, e-commerce and digital payments have sustained their expansion and increased their prominence, which is why it is essential to maintain the commitment and deepen the trust of users throughout Latin America.

In this second report, which covers the period from January to June 2021, the scope of information available to users, authorities and civil society organizations was extended. For the first time, information requests from authorities that are processed in compliance with the law are shared. In addition, the information in the previous report on the security of products and platforms, the protection of intellectual property rights, and the responsible and secure management of users' personal data was updated.

"Being the first Latin American company to make and publish this type of report, we understand our social and economic role and continue to seek points of improvement that highlight the bonds created through trust and honesty. Our goal is to go a step beyond legal compliance and offer a differential value proposition as we do in this case by offering for the first time the information requirements of authorities that are processed in compliance with the law," said Juan Cichero, head of Brand Protection at Mercado Libre.

The Transparency Report includes data from four main areas:

• Information requests: In this second Report, we are disclosing for the first time the number of user information requests we received and processed throughout the region. In general, the requests correspond to information about operations within the ecosystem, user registration data and connection IPs, among other issues. For several years Mercado Libre has been promoting digital communication to enable faster and more efficient management of notifications from various authorities. These communication channels save valuable time for the authorities, and also make it possible to analyze and respond to requests with agility, in order to collaborate in a timely manner with ongoing investigations. This second report was able to reveal that 80% of the requests for information received were properly answered, while the remaining 20% were incorrect requests or regarding information that was not available.
• Care of the product security and quality: Mercado Libre is a pioneer in self-regulation policies and has security tools, which are evolving and adding innovations to combat any activity that affects the quality of the platform. The compliance of its policies of use is mandatory for all users of the platform and applies to all categories of published items. In the event of a violation, the sanction can range from removal of the publication, suspension or cancellation of the account to reporting to the authorities, depending on the type and/or repetition of the violation itself. As a result of these efforts, 99.4% of the removed content is proactively detected by Mercado Libre (the rest is reported by users or authorities). In the reporting period, more than 8.8 million publications were detected and moderated by our regional moderators, of which 253,219 corresponded to Argentina.
• The protection of intellectual property rights: In order to ensure the best shopping experience for our users by working to ensure that they find original products on our platform, Mercado Libre provides intellectual property rights holders with tools that allow them to report publications that infringe their rights. In this regard, for decades Mercado Libre has offered the BRAND PROTECTION PROGRAM, which allows intellectual property rights holders and their attorneys-in-fact to report allegedly infringing publications in any of the 18 countries where Mercado Libre operates. The tool is free of charge and helps them protect their entire portfolio (trademarks, patents and utility models, copyrights, industrial models and industrial designs). It is available in Spanish, Portuguese and English and allows real-time searches, individual or mass reporting of publications and tracking of their reports from a single account for all Latin America. In addition, automated tools based on artificial intelligence were developed to "learn" from the reports and proactively remove publications containing infringements detected by intellectual property rights holders. During the reporting period, 33,822 new rights were incorporated into the BPP. This program currently has more than 5,000 members. Of the total number of publications removed during the reporting period, 85% were the result of proactive measures carried out by Mercado Libre, while the remaining 15% were reports from BPP members.
• Safeguarding privacy: Mercado Libre's priority is to safeguard users' personal data in order to continue being a reliable business partner. Therefore, the data of all registered users who buy, sell, charge or pay within the ecosystem in the region are managed in a responsible, secure and transparent manner. For Mercado Libre, the responsible management of personal data is a commitment that goes beyond the compliance with regulations: it implies the safeguarding of one of the company's most important assets. In-house, there is a strict data protection compliance program that crosses the entire company, and the company collaborates with different authorities to adapt the entire operation to the highest regional standards in terms of privacy. Likewise, tools are made available to allow users to exercise their ARCO rights (Access, Rectification, Cancellation and Opposition) in an agile and simple manner. In turn, all Mercado Libre employees must undergo a training process on data protection and privacy. We make sure that all areas understand the risks related to these issues and check any initiative that processes personal information against current regulations before implementing it. The Report shows that out of a total of 16,689 requests received in the analyzed period, 16,314 were concluded, 341 were in process at the end of the period and only 34 were rejected. The vast majority of the applications reported were submitted by our users in Brazil.

"Like us, we understand that the concept of transparency is in continuous beta, as it is constantly evolving and taking on new meanings with each technological advance and the cultural transformations it provokes. That is why this report will continue to have the same dynamism, updating data and adding information every semester," added Juan Cichero.

The second edition, covering January to June 2021, can be downloaded in full at this link.

About Mercado Libre

Founded in 1999, Mercado Libre is Latin America's leading e-commerce technology company. Through its primary platforms, Mercado Libre.com and Mercado Pago.com, it provides solutions to individuals and companies buying, selling, advertising, and paying for goods and services online.

Mercado Libre.com serves millions of users and creates a market for a wide variety of goods and services in an easy, safe and efficient way. The site is among the top 30 in the world in terms of page views and is the leading retail platform in unique visitors in the major countries in which it operates according to metrics provided by comScore Networks. The Company is listed on NASDAQ (Nasdaq: MELI) following its initial public offering in 2007.