Presencia

Following the 2013 constitutional energy amendment, the Mexican energy market became a competitive market that allowed private in vestment. In addition, the Hydrocarbon Law, which was issued in January 2015, allows third parties which are unrelated to the state-owned enterprise Petroleos Mexicanos (Pemex) to sell gasoline and diesel. In light of these developments, in 2016 the Mexican Federal Economic Competition Commission (COFECE) issued a series of recommendations aimed at fostering competition in the gasoline and diesel markets.

In August 2015 the Federal Economic Competition Commission (COFECE) approved a concentration between Dutch fund Moench Coöperatif, UA and one of the major pharmaceutical product distributors in Mexico, Marzam, through which the former acquired control over the latter. The concentration was approved without commitments, as the COFECE was advised that Moench Coöperatif did not participate in the same market as Marzam and thus that there was no overlap between the agents involved.

On 17 July 2018 the Federal Competition Commission (FECC) issued its Competition Agenda for Public Procurement, in which it presented its findings regarding competition issues that arise during the public procurement process. In the agenda, the FECC also proposed certain courses of action (both administrative and legislative) to promote effective competition in public procurement.

On December 8 2016 the First Collegiate Tribunal on Administrative Matters Specialised in Economic Competition, Broadcasting and Telecommunications recognised the concept of attorney-client privilege and the attorney-client work product doctrine in an antitrust context for the first time (for further details please see "Courts recognise attorney-client privilege in antitrust matter for first time"). However, the tribunal's ruling was non-binding and could be used by specialised judges only as a guide.

In January 2017 the Federal Economic Competition Commission (FECC) issued its Annual Working Plan. In it, the FECC recognised that one of its strategic goals is to communicate to economic agents how anti-competitive practices will be investigated and which actions agents may adopt to prevent potential risks. In particular, the FECC declared that one of its goals for 2017 would be to launch a project to develop guidelines for the analysis of collaboration agreements between competitors. According to the FECC, this project will: l clarify key concepts on the subject; l collect best practices on the analysis of collaboration agreements among competitors; l indicate specific criteria to identify the activities that should be investigated; and l highlight collaboration agreements that may be considered collusive.

Corn tortillas are a fundamental source of nutrition for Mexican families. Given the importance of the corn tortilla market, it has come under the scrutiny of several authorities, including the Attorney General for Consumer Protection (PROFECO) and the former Federal Competition Commission (CFC). (1) For example, in February 2016 PROFECO suspended three corn tortilla retailers from Hermosillo, Sonora, for increasing their prices to up to Ps24 (approximately $1.3) a kilo for no justifiable reason.

Patents are essential for incentivising innovation and the development of new and improved pharmaceutical products. They give innovative laboratories exclusive exploitation rights over their pharmaceutical products for 20 years, after which other laboratories can develop their own generic version to compete with the original product

On July 7, 2014, a new Federal Economic Competition Law (“NLFCE”) will come into effect, introducing significant changes in the three traditional areas of the law: mergers, absolute and relative monopolistic practices, and creating a new control mechanism in this field—market investigations.

On July 5 2016 the Federal Economic Competition Commission (FECC) imposed total fines of $3,882,378.52(1) on Denso and Mitsubishi for commissioning an absolute monopolistic practice in a sensible commercial information exchange, the object and effect of which was the manipulation of the price of automobile air conditioner compressors.

Criminal action is considered to be an effective tool to dissuade cartels across the globe. It was introduced into the Mexican competition law framework in 2011,(1) after the Federal Law of Economic Competition and the Federal Criminal Code were amended. Further, in 2014, as a consequence of the new Federal Law of Economic Competition's enactment, the applicable dispositions on criminal liability were modified to increase penalties and adjust some procedural issues.