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Ernesto Estrada Gonzalez, Apr 03, 2008
Note to readers: GCP Authorities is a new collection that will be appearing in the magazine throughout the year and will feature articles by competition authority officials worldwide on their agency’s approach to competition law and objectives and priorities for 2008. Competition policy in Mexico started in 1993 when the Federal Law of Economic Competition entered into force and the Federal Competition Commission (CFC) was created as the agency responsible for its enforcement. During its fourteen years of activity, the CFC has won key battles before the courts that have paved the path for an effective competition policy based on sound economic analysis and aimed at enhancing the efficient functioning of markets. It has achieved notable advances in competition advocacy, merger control, and cartel and unilateral conduct enforcement. However, the CFC faces significant challenges from cartel activity, prevailing regulatory restrictions on competition, and exclusionary practices undertaken by some of the most powerful corporations in Mexico. Its ability to deal with these challenges is constrained by legal limits to the levels of fines that are far below international standards. It also faces a judicial system that ordinarily reviews competition decisions at the request of respondents, but lacks the specialized economic expertise needed to consider substantive competition matters in their resolutions. There is an urgent need for the CFC to focus its resources on effectively prosecuting the most damaging anticompetitive practices and to strengthen its efforts to develop a competition culture, especially within the Congress, regulators, and other government branches. Download the entire article available in the column on the left.
