Merlo is one of the most populous partidos of the western suburbs, organised by the stations of the Sarmiento railway, from San Antonio de Padua to Libertad and Mariano Acosta, and by Provincial Route 200, which crosses it as a commercial avenue. The Western Access runs along its northern edge and Route 21 and Route 1001 connect it with Moreno, Ituzaingó and La Matanza. Traffic is made of chauffeur cars, school transport, local deliveries and trade pickups, with many units registered in neighbouring partidos. Municipal fines are issued by the partido; those on the routes and the Access depend on the province.

Context and authority

The framework is the National Traffic Law 24.449, which Buenos Aires adheres to: fixed units, two-year limitation for minor offences and five for serious ones. The municipal misdemeanour court rules on fines issued within the partido; route fines and those of the provincial authority are explained in the Buenos Aires article.

The municipal misdemeanour court rules on fines issued within the town limits: speeding and red lights on Route 200 inside the urban core and on Calle Real and Constitución avenues, parking in the commercial centre and document checks at the partido’s operations. A defence is filed with the court within the period set by the notice. Fines on the Western Access and on Route 200 outside the town limits are provincial.

What the API returns for this jurisdiction

In Merlo a plate lookup walks the integrated provincial sources of Buenos Aires, starting with InfraccionesBA, the provincial registry of the Buenos Aires Ministry of Transport, and returns each fine with the authority that issued it:

  • Authority and fine number exactly as each court publishes them.
  • Date, location when reported and description of the infraction.
  • Amount, status and payment conditions published by that court.
  • Downloadable payment slip when one exists.
  • Coverage per source and partial-result flag.

How to check a plate in Merlo

Manual verification starts at the Merlo Municipality portal, continues through the provincial circuit of the Buenos Aires article and ends at the ANSV national lookup. That round, repeated for every plate, is what the API replaces: one lookup per plate across the integrated sources, with the result per source so you know what was verified.

What to watch if you run a fleet in Merlo

For a school transport company or a chauffeur service from the west, fines are split between the Merlo court and the provincial source depending on the stretch, and the driver changes units several times a week. Looking up each plate at month end, with the result stored per source, lets you assign the fine to that day’s driver before the notice arrives.

A delivery fleet registered in Morón or La Matanza that enters Merlo every day only discovers the provincial fines from the Western Access when renewing the technical inspection; a plate lookup before each expiry avoids paying them without a discount.

How to integrate

A lookup is a POST with the plate and, optionally, the jurisdictions to include; the initial response accepts the job and the result arrives by status lookup or webhook, because official sources answer in seconds or minutes. The asynchronous APIs guide explains how to retry without duplicating work and the API page details access.

JSONIllustrative example, not a contract.
{
  "plate": "ABC123",
  "jurisdictions": [
    "AR-B"
  ]
}

Limits and considerations

  • Provincial fines on a plate originate on routes and motorways across the whole province, not only in the partido; the response names the authority and the location when the source reports it.
  • Fixed-unit amounts are converted at the value current at the source; the final amount is set by the authority at the time of payment.
  • A source that does not answer is reported as such, never as an absence of infractions.
  • The API neither pays fines nor handles defences; it delivers information to decide.

Sources and further reading