Global Competition Law is primarly a practitioner's guide presenting the most salient aspects of the major competition laws country by country, giving an overview of their structure and most charasteristic elements.
Global Competition Law also provides insight into possible future developments in the field.

Global Competition Law

The Act applies to all sectors of economic activity throughout the Mexican Republic, subject to limited exemptions which it specifies. Federal, State and municipal authorities are subject to its provisions to the extent such authorities participate in economic activities, with the exception of certain state functions in strategic fields such as postal services, production of oil and electricity wh …

Scope

Competition law in Mexico is based on Section 28 of the Political Constitution of the United Mexican States. Following this Section, the Federal Law of Economic Competition (Ley Federal de Competencia Económica, LFCE, “the Act") was enacted in 1992 and came into effect in June 1993. The Act replaced the "Organic Law of Section 28 of the Constitution on Monopolies” enacted in 1934 and its purpose is “to protect the competitive process and free market participation by preventing and eliminating monopolies, monopolistic practices and other restraints on the efficient functioning of markets for goods and services”. The Act was modified in 2006 and a regulation was adopted on 12 October 2007 (Reglamento de la Ley Federal de Competencia Economica, RLFCE). New amendments were brought to the LFCE in 2011 which, inter alia, increased the investigative powers of the Competition Commission and the amount of fines and introduced criminal sanctions for individuals. 

Section 28 of the Constitution was amended in June 2013 in order to enhance competition enforcement. The new provisions reorganized the competition authorities establishing a new body (the Federal Telecommunications Institute - IFETEL) having exclusive responsibility for monitoring competition in the area of telecommunications and replacing the Federal Competition Commission by a new Federal Economic Competition Commission (the COFECE). Accordingly, the Mexican Congress approved a new Federal Law of Economic Competition on 29 April 2014, published in the Official Gazette on 23 May 2014, which replaced the former Act. Without altering the key concepts of the latter, the 2014 Act grants enhanced powers to the two new competition authorities, defines new types of monopolistic behavior while streamlining competition proceedings and strengthening criminal sanctions.

The area of unfair practices is regulated by a number of different statutes such as the Consumer Protection Law (Ley Federal de Proteccion al Consumidor, 1992) or the Patent and Trademark Law (Ley de la propriedad industrial, 1991).

Finally, on 21 February 2024, the COFECE amended the Regulatory Provisions of the Federal Law of Economic Competition to clarify and strengthen the provisions related to the imposition and lifting of interim measures in proceedings before the Competition Commission. 

Context

The Act applies to all sectors of economic activity throughout the Mexican Republic, subject to limited exemptions which it specifies. Federal, State and municipal authorities are subject to its provisions to the extent such authorities participate in economic activities, with the exception of certain state functions in strategic fields such as postal services, production of oil and electricity which may not be deemed to constitute monopolies (Article 6). The same applies under Article 7 to trade unions or to the exclusive rights conferred on artists and inventors.

Although competition rules apply in the telecommunications sector, they have been enforced since the Constitutional Reform of 2013 by the newly established Federal Telecommunications Institute (IFETEL).

The 2014 Act introduced two new concepts in Mexican Law. Firstly, “barriers to competition” ("barreras a la competencia") designate any structural feature of the market, legal provisions or behavior of undertakings having the object or effect of hindering competitors' access to the market, limiting their ability to compete or distorting the free play of competition. Secondly, “essential inputs” ("insumos esenciales") are inputs or facilities indispensable for the provision of goods or services on one or more markets, without close substitutes, the reproduction of which is not feasible from a technical, legal or economic point of view and which are controlled by one or more undertakings having substantial market power or having been deemed as such by the IFETEL. The existence of barriers to competition or hindered access to essential inputs may be discovered through the new power of the COFECE to conduct market inquiries where there is cause to suspect that there is no effective competition on one market. The COFECE is empowered to eliminate barriers to competition in particular by ordering the divestiture of assets, rights or equity interests and to regulate access to essential inputs, notably by fixing prices.

Global Competition Law

1094. Scope

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Les notions juridiques connexes

1094. Scope

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Les notions juridiques connexes

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