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SUMMARY OF SIGNIFICANT ACCOUNTING POLICIES (Policies) | 3 Months Ended
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Mar. 31, 2025
Accounting Policies [Abstract] |
Basis of presentation | Basis of presentation The accompanying unaudited interim condensed consolidated financial statements are prepared in conformity with accounting principles generally accepted in the U.S. (“U.S. GAAP”) and include the accounts of the Company, its wholly-owned subsidiaries and consolidated Variable Interest Entities (“VIEs”). These unaudited interim condensed consolidated financial statements are stated in U.S. dollars, except for where otherwise indicated. Intercompany transactions and balances have been eliminated for consolidation purposes. Substantially all net revenues and financial income, cost of net revenues and financial expenses and operating expenses, are generated in the Company’s foreign operations. Long-lived assets, intangible assets and goodwill and operating lease right-of-use assets located in the foreign jurisdictions totaled $3,013 million and $2,632 million as of March 31, 2025 and December 31, 2024, respectively. These unaudited interim condensed consolidated financial statements reflect the Company’s consolidated financial position as of March 31, 2025 and December 31, 2024. These unaudited interim condensed consolidated financial statements include the Company’s consolidated statements of income, comprehensive income, equity and cash flows for the three-month periods ended March 31, 2025 and 2024. These unaudited interim condensed consolidated financial statements include all normal recurring adjustments that Management believes are necessary to fairly state the Company’s financial position, operating results and cash flows. Because all of the disclosures required by U.S. GAAP for annual consolidated financial statements are not included herein, these unaudited interim condensed consolidated financial statements should be read in conjunction with the audited consolidated financial statements and the notes thereto for the year ended December 31, 2024, contained in the Company’s Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2024 filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) (the “Company’s 2024 10-K”). The Company has evaluated all subsequent events through the date these unaudited interim condensed consolidated financial statements were issued. The interim condensed consolidated statements of income, comprehensive income, equity and cash flows for the periods presented herein are not necessarily indicative of results expected for any future period. For a more detailed discussion of the Company’s significant accounting policies, see Note 2 to the financial statements in the Company’s 2024 10-K. During the three-month period ended March 31, 2025, there were no material updates made to the Company’s significant accounting policies.
Use of estimates | Use of estimates The preparation of these unaudited interim condensed consolidated financial statements in conformity with U.S. GAAP requires Management to make estimates and assumptions that affect the reported amounts of assets and liabilities and disclosure of contingent assets and liabilities at the date of the financial statements and the reported amounts of revenues and expenses during the reporting period. Estimates are used for, but not limited to, accounting and disclosures for allowance for doubtful accounts and chargeback provisions, inventories valuation reserves, recoverability of goodwill, intangible assets with indefinite useful lives and deferred tax assets, impairment of cash and cash equivalents, short-term and long-term investments, impairment of long-lived assets, separation of lease and non lease components for aircraft leases, asset retirement obligation, compensation costs relating to the Company’s long term retention program, fair value of certain loans payable and other financial liabilities, fair value of loans receivable, fair value of derivative instruments, income taxes, contingencies and determination of the incremental borrowing rate at commencement date of lease operating agreements. Actual results could differ from those estimates.
Supplier finance programs | Supplier finance programs The Company and certain financial institutions participate in a supplier finance program that enables certain of the Company’s suppliers, at their own election, to request the payment of their invoices to the financial institutions earlier than the terms stated in the Company’s payment policy.
Revenue recognition | Revenue recognition Revenue recognition criteria for the services provided and goods sold by the Company are described in Note 2 to the consolidated financial statements in the Company’s 2024 10-K. The aggregate gain included in “Financial services and income” revenues arising from financing transactions and sales of financial assets, net of the costs recognized on sale of credit card receivables, is $506 million and $365 million for the three-month periods ended March 31, 2025 and 2024, respectively. Revenues recognized under ASC 606, Revenue from contracts with customers, amounted to $4,191 million and $3,099 million for the three-month periods ended March 31, 2025 and 2024, respectively. Revenues not recognized under ASC 606 amounted to $1,744 million and $1,234 million for the three-month periods ended March 31, 2025 and 2024, respectively. Contract balances Timing of revenue recognition may differ from the timing of invoicing to customers. Receivables represent amounts invoiced and revenue recognized prior to invoicing when the Company has satisfied the performance obligation and has the unconditional right to payment. Accounts receivable and credit card receivables and other means of payments are presented net of allowance for doubtful accounts and chargebacks of $45 million and $42 million as of March 31, 2025 and December 31, 2024, respectively. See Note 5 – Loans receivable, Net of these unaudited interim condensed consolidated financial statements for information related to the allowance for doubtful accounts with respect to the Company’s loans receivable. Contract liabilities from contracts with customers consists of fees received related to unsatisfied performance obligations at the end of the period in accordance with ASC 606. Due to the generally short-term duration of contracts, the majority of the performance obligations are satisfied in the following months.
Foreign currency translation | Foreign currency translation All of the Company’s foreign operations have determined the local currency to be their functional currency, except for Argentina, which has used the U.S. dollar as its functional currency since July 1, 2018. Accordingly, the foreign subsidiaries with local currency as functional currency translate assets and liabilities from their local currencies into U.S. dollars by using period-end exchange rates while income and expense accounts are translated at the average monthly rates in effect during the period, unless exchange rates fluctuate significantly during the period, in which case the exchange rates at the date of the transaction are used. The resulting translation adjustment is recorded as a component of other comprehensive income (loss). Gains and losses resulting from transactions denominated in non-functional currencies are recognized in earnings. Net foreign currency transaction results are included in the interim condensed consolidated statements of income under the caption “Foreign currency losses, net.” Argentine currency status and macroeconomic outlook As of July 1, 2018, the Company transitioned its Argentine operations to highly inflationary status in accordance with U.S. GAAP, and changed the functional currency for Argentine subsidiaries from Argentine Pesos to U.S. dollars, which is the functional currency of their immediate parent company. Argentina’s inflation rate for the three-month periods ended March 31, 2025 and 2024 was 8.6% and 51.6%, respectively. Additionally, Argentina’s average inter-annual inflation rate for the three-month period ended March 31, 2025 was 69.1%. The Company uses Argentina’s official exchange rate to account for transactions in the Argentine segment, which as of March 31, 2025 and December 31, 2024 was 1,074.00 and 1,032.00 Argentine Pesos, respectively, against the U.S. dollar. For the three-month periods ended March 31, 2025 and 2024, Argentina’s official exchange rate against the U.S. dollar increased 4.1% and 6.1%, respectively. The average exchange rate for the three-month periods ended March 31, 2025 and 2024 was 1,057.00 and 834.46, respectively, resulting in an increase of 26.7%. Argentine exchange regulations In the second half of 2019, the Argentine government instituted exchange controls restricting the ability of companies and individuals to exchange Argentine Pesos for foreign currencies and their ability to remit foreign currency out of Argentina. An entity’s authorization request to the Central Bank of Argentina (“CBA”) to access the official exchange market to make foreign currency payments may be denied depending on the circumstances. As a result of these exchange controls, markets in Argentina developed trading mechanisms, in which an entity or individual buys U.S. dollar denominated securities in Argentina (i.e. shares, sovereign debt) using Argentine Pesos, and subsequently sells the securities for U.S. dollars, in Argentina, to access U.S. dollars locally, or outside Argentina, by transferring the securities abroad, prior to being sold (the latter commonly known as “Blue Chip Swap Rate”). The Blue Chip Swap Rate diverged from Argentina’s official exchange rate (commonly known as the exchange spread). As of March 31, 2025 and December 31, 2024, the exchange spread was 22.9% and 14.7%, respectively. On April 11, 2025, the Argentine government announced a series of measures aimed at easing regulations related to access to the foreign exchange market. Among other modifications, these measures include the establishment of floating bands (between 1,000 and 1,400 Argentine Pesos) within which the dollar exchange rate in the foreign exchange market may fluctuate, the elimination of foreign exchange restrictions applicable to individuals, the ability of companies to transfer dividends abroad to non-resident shareholders related to fiscal years beginning on or after January 1, 2025 and provide greater flexibility to make payments abroad for imports of goods and services. As a result of the liberalization of the exchange controls, the Blue Chip Swap Rate in Argentina has substantially converged with the official exchange rate.
Income taxes | Income taxes Income taxes’ accounting policy is described in Note 2 to the consolidated financial statements in the Company’s 2024 10-K. The Company’s consolidated estimated effective tax rate for the three-month period ended March 31, 2025, as compared to the same period in 2024, increased from 28.5% to 30.0%, mainly as a result of lower deductions related to tax inflation adjustments in Argentina, partially offset by lower taxable foreign exchange gains accounted for in Argentina for local tax purposes that are not recorded for accounting purposes since, under U.S. GAAP, the Argentine operations’ functional currency is the U.S. dollar due to the highly inflationary status of the country. A valuation allowance is recorded when, based on the available evidence, it is more likely than not that all or a portion of the Company’s deferred tax assets will not be realized. In accordance with ASC 740, Management periodically assesses the need to either establish or reverse a valuation allowance for deferred tax assets considering positive and negative objective evidence related to the realization of the deferred tax assets. In its assessment, Management considers, among other factors, the nature, frequency and magnitude of current and cumulative losses on an individual subsidiary basis, projections of future taxable income, the duration of statutory carryforward periods, as well as feasible tax planning strategies, which would be employed by the Company to prevent tax loss carry-forwards from expiring unutilized. Knowledge-based economy promotional regime in Argentina In August 2021, the Under Secretariat of Knowledge Economy issued the Disposition 316/2021 approving MercadoLibre S.R.L.’s application for eligibility under the knowledge-based economy promotional regime, established by the Law No. 27,506 and complemented by Argentina’s Executive Power Decree No. 1034/2020, Argentina’s Ministry of Productive Development’s Resolution No. 4/2021 and the Under Secretariat of Knowledge Economy’s Disposition No. 11/2021. On September 13, 2024, Argentina’s Secretariat of Entrepreneurs and Small and Medium Enterprises and Knowledge-Based Economy issued Resolution 267/2024, reducing the aggregate cap on base salaries used to calculate the tax credit bond to which companies that qualify for the regime are entitled from approximately 40 million Argentine pesos to 5 million Argentine pesos; the tax credit bond represents 70% of the Company’s social security contributions for those employees whose jobs are related to the promoted activities, with a salary cap which has been reduced to the indicated limit. MercadoLibre S.R.L. uses the tax credit bond to offset federal taxes. As a result, the Company recorded an income tax benefit of $18 million and $1 million during the three-month periods ended March 31, 2025 and 2024, respectively. The aggregate per share effect of the income tax benefit amounted to $0.36 and $0.01 for the three-month periods ended March 31, 2025 and 2024, respectively. Furthermore, the Company recorded a social security benefit of $17 million during the three-month period ended March 31, 2024. For the three-month period ended March 31, 2025, the Company has not recorded any social security benefit.
Fair value option applied to certain financial instruments | Fair value option applied to certain financial instruments Under ASC 825, U.S. GAAP provides an option to elect fair value with impact on the statement of income as an alternative measurement for certain financial instruments and other items on the balance sheet. The Company has elected to measure certain financial assets at fair value with impact on the statement of income for several reasons including to avoid the mismatch generated by the recognition of certain linked instruments / transactions, separately, in the interim condensed consolidated statements of income and interim condensed consolidated statements of comprehensive income and to better reflect the financial model applied for selected instruments. The Company’s election of the fair value option applies to: i) foreign government debt securities and ii) U.S. government debt securities. Additionally, the Company has elected to measure the liability related to the Meli Dólar program, which corresponds to the holding by third-parties of the Company’s stablecoin, at fair value.
Recently Adopted Accounting Standards and Recently issued accounting pronouncements not yet adopted | Recently Adopted Accounting Standards As of the date of issuance of these unaudited interim condensed consolidated financial statements there were no accounting pronouncements recently adopted by the Company. Recently issued accounting pronouncements not yet adopted On December 14, 2023, the FASB issued the Accounting Standard Update (“ASU”) 2023-09 “Income Taxes (Topic 740): Improvements to Income Tax Disclosures.” The amendments in this update provide more transparency about income tax information through improvements to income tax disclosures primarily related to the rate reconciliation and income taxes paid information, requiring consistent categories and greater disaggregation of information in the rate reconciliation and income taxes paid disaggregated by jurisdiction. The other amendments in this update improve the effectiveness and comparability of disclosures by adding disclosures of pretax income (or loss) and income tax expense (or benefit) and removing disclosures that no longer are considered cost beneficial or relevant. The amendments are effective for annual periods beginning after December 15, 2024. Early adoption is permitted for annual financial statements that have not yet been issued or made available for issuance. The guidance should be applied on a prospective basis while retrospective application is permitted. The Company is assessing the effects that the adoption of this accounting pronouncement may have on its financial statements. On November 4, 2024, the FASB issued the ASU 2024-03 “Income Statement—Reporting Comprehensive Income—Expense Disaggregation Disclosures (Subtopic 220-40): Disaggregation of Income Statement Expenses.” The amendments in this update improve financial reporting by requiring disclosure of additional information about certain costs and expenses in the notes to financial statements at interim and annual reporting, such as the amounts of purchases of inventory, employee compensation, depreciation and intangible asset amortization included in each relevant expense caption; a qualitative description of the amounts remaining in relevant expense captions that are not separately disaggregated quantitatively; the total amount of selling expenses and, in annual reporting periods, an entity’s definition of selling expenses. The amendments are effective for annual reporting periods beginning after December 15, 2026, and interim reporting periods within annual reporting periods beginning after December 15, 2027 (as clarified by ASU 2025-01). Early adoption is permitted. The amendments should be applied either prospectively to financial statements issued for reporting periods after the effective date of this update or retrospectively to any or all prior periods presented in the financial statements. The Company is assessing the effects that the adoption of this accounting pronouncement may have on its financial statements.

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