Peru’s legislature has issued a new decree, approved last Tuesday, introducing several modifications to the country’s Competition laws. The wide-ranging reforms are aimed primarily at increasing the investigation, case referral and sanctioning powers of the country’s competition watchdog, INDECOPI.
Among the biggest changes is INDECOPI’s new faculties to demand the payment of damages and losses for any anti-competitive practices and any negative effects. Thus, the agency can force payment of lost income to affected parties without having to go through courts. The regulator may also begin legal procedures to force the payment of damages caused by market manipulations whenever the administrative route fails to correct such behaviors.
Another important change is the expansion of INDECOPI’s investigating powers, including the ability to ask the courts to lift any secrecy protections from industrial communications during the course of their investigations. Additionally, INDECOPI has been given powers to punish those who offer false information, fail to comply with information requests, fail to appear for interviews and hearings or who otherwise hinder the agency’s work.
Source: La Ley
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