Mercado Libre

Mercado Libre’s Chicas en Tecnología (Girls in Technology) initiative contributes to the digital inclusivity of women and girls in Argentina. The programme provides mentors for participants and connects them with Mercado Libre teams so they can experience working in a tech environment. The company reports the number of its employees with disabilities and clearly discloses how it distributes the economic value it generates among its stakeholders as well as employment in its significant markets.

The company has programmes that focus on enhancing intermediate and technical digital skills. Redes al Futuro (Future Networks) teaches youth across Argentina, Brazil and Mexico technical skills to help them compete in the job market. The company’s programme Certified Tech Developers aims at teaching coding to young graduates in Uruguay. In 2021, the programme was expanded to Argentina, Brazil and Colombia.

Mercado Libre meets industry norms by having a senior director of cybersecurity and follows industry best practice by reporting data breaches. It also has a privacy policy applicable at the group level. The company has improved its reporting standards around privacy; for example, it has started reporting data breaches and publishes a transparency report. Additionally, Mercado Libre provides mechanisms enabling users to access and copy the information the company holds on them in a structured format.

Mercado Libre supports the tech innovation ecosystem with both a venture capital fund and start-up support. The company has its own programmes to develop start-ups and partners with the American-based non-profit Ashoka to support social entrepreneurs. Mercado Libre also follows best practice by disclosing the locations of its research and development (R&D) facilities and the number of women on its tech staff. 

Mercado Libre has an opportunity to introduce programmes that contribute to universal and affordable access to digital technologies. It can also undertake a third-party impact assessment of its Chicas en Tecnología programme. No evidence was found relating to how the company accommodates the needs of customers and employees with disabilities. The company can consider expanding its contribution and reporting in this area.

Mercado Libre has an opportunity to support initiatives that provide digital literacy training and improve school connectivity. The company can disclose its contribution to skills development programmes and consider undertaking a third-party impact assessment to understand the impact on beneficiaries and identify strengths and areas of improvement.

Mercado Libre lags behind other companies in disclosing how it handles responsibility for cybersecurity at a high level, and how it monitors and responds to security incidents. Further, although it publishes a transparency report, it does not provide a country breakdown of the government requests it receives for data. Additionally, no evidence was found of the company’s commitment or initiatives in relation to child online safety.

Mercado Libre can make a high-level commitment to open source initiatives and standards and support this by sharing public data sets or partnering with universities on technology and sustainability-related research. It also has an opportunity to support entrepreneurs from underrepresented groups. The company can also more clearly demonstrate how it applies ethical considerations in its research and development (R&D) activities.

Mercado Libre commits to respecting human rights in a public policy document. However, the company’s commitment to respect the ILO core labour rights can be stronger. For example, it does not disclose, in a policy statement, that it respects the rights to freedom of association and collective bargaining. Mercado Libre has included human rights issues in its materiality assessment. However, it does not disclose a process to identify, assess and act on salient human rights risks in its own operations and in its business relationships. The company describes the various stakeholders it engages with in general, but it does not specify whether it engages with stakeholders whose human rights could be affected by its activities. Mercado Libre does have a grievance mechanism accessible to both workers and external stakeholders to raise human rights concerns and complaints.

Mercado Libre publicly commits to respecting worker health and safety and places the same expectation on its business relationships. However, the company does not disclose a policy commitment stating that it does not require workers to work more than regular and overtime hours, and it does not explicitly state that it requires its business relationships to do this. Furthermore, it does not publicly commit to paying its workers a living wage or to promoting gender equality and women’s empowerment. Mercado Libre discloses the percentage of its workforce covered by collective bargaining agreements and provides a breakdown of its workforce by gender, but it has an opportunity to provide employee breakdowns by other indicators of diversity, such as age group.

Mercado Libre has a policy prohibiting bribery and corruption and includes anti-bribery and anti-corruption clauses in its business relationship contracts. Furthermore, it provides a mechanism for all stakeholders to raise concerns around corruption and bribery. However, the company does not have global tax strategy. While it discloses the income taxes it pays in two categories – US and non-US – it does not disclose its income tax payments for individual tax jurisdictions. Mercado Libre does not disclose its approach to lobbying and political engagement. Specifically, the company has no public statement indicating that it does not make political contributions, and it does not disclose its lobbying expenditures.