THE ROLE OF THE FEDERAL LAW OF ECONOMIC COMPETITION: THE CASE OF THE PROCEDURES OF DISPENSATION AND REDUCTION IN THE AMOUNT OF SANCTIONS IN INVESTIGATIONS OF RELATIVE MONOPOLIC PRACTICES

Abstract

The policy of economic competition in the Mexican State, despite its relative innovation, has gained importance in recent years. It is enough to review the development of the Federal Economic Competition Law from 1992, the date on which it was initially promulgated, going through each of its seven reforms, prior to the 2013 constitutional change in telecommunications and economic competition which meant a true antecedent in the practice of this matter. On the occasion of said constitutional reform a number of important modifications were made, such as the following: a new economic competition authority with constitutional autonomy, incremental powers of the administrative authority, quantitative increase in the amount of sanctions , creation of specialized courts for the resolution of controversies coming from

the areas of telecommunications or economic competition, new investigation procedures for the efficient functioning of the markets, among others. In this context, this article focuses on the investigation procedure of relative monopolistic practices or prohibited concentrations that are interrupted by the presentation of investigated economic agent of a document by means of which the Procedure of Dispensation and Reduction in the Amount of Fines is accepted, (hereinafter also the “Commitment Procedure”) through which behavioral commitments are offered (hereinafter the “Commitments”) for the suspension or correction of the practices investigated and that are contrary to the text of the Federal Law of Economic Competition (also known as the “LFCE” for its acronym in Spanish). For this reason, it is important to review not only the investigation procedure foreseen in the LFCE, but also that corresponding to the Commitment Procedure, the operation of these and their obligatory nature over time.