Reforms to the Federal Economic Competition Law

Following the administrative simplification constitutional reform approved last December 2024 (the Reform) which abolished the Federal Economic Competition Commission (COFECE) and incorporated the National Antitrust Commission (CNA or the Commission); on July 1, 2025, the Mexican Federal Congress passed the “Decree amending, adding, and repealing several provisions of the Federal Economic Competition Law and the Federal Law on State-Owned Entities” (the Decree).

Previously, COFECE was an “Autonomous Constitutional Body” (OCA), situated outside the federal public administration (APF) with its own legal personality and assets. As a result of the Reform, the new CNA was included in the APF as a “decentralized public organization” of the Ministry of Economy (SE). This change in legal nature allows the CNA to operate under its own personality and assets but with certain particularities of decentralized organizations such as:

1. Its governing body will be composed of 5 commissioners, who will be proposed by the Presidency of the Republic and ratified by the Senate of the Republic, by a majority of votes of those present at the time of voting and will be integrated in a staggered manner.
2. Generally, decentralized organizations are regulated by the Federal Law on State-Owned Entities but given the nature of the activities of the CNA, the Decree provides that it will be excluded from this law and will be regulated by the Federal Economic Competition Law (LFCE).
3. Since the Commission will be part of the SE, all references to the Internal Control Body (OIC) of the CNA contained within the LFCE have been removed. Instead, the authorities of investigation, oversight, and processing of complaints will be transferred to the OIC of the SE.

The reform to the LFCE modifies certain rules of the investigation procedures in competition matters, such as:

1. Merger Control. The thresholds triggering the obligation to notify an operation are reduced. The CNA can review the legality of an operation up to three years after its execution; previously, this was a one-year period. When notifying, economic agents must evidence that the efficiencies in the market that will be generated will continuously outweigh their potential anticompetitive effects and will result in consumer welfare.
2. Cartels (Absolute Monopolistic Practices, PMA). Previously, the exchange of information between economic agents who were current competitors was considered PMA; now potential economic agents are included. For this exchange of information to be unlawful, it must, among other things, aim to (i) prevent access to other economic agents or (ii) limit the ability to compete in the investigated markets.
3. Dominance (Relative Monopolistic Practices, PMR). The term “joint substantial power” is included to define the substantial market power held by two or more independent economic agents collectively, qualified through similar behavior within the investigated market or that promote common incentives or interdependent strategic behavior. Also considered as constitutive elements are (i) the degree of positioning of goods and services within the market, (ii) the lack of access to imports or the existence of high entry costs, and (iii) the cost differences that consumers may face when turning to other suppliers.
4. Qualification procedure. This procedure was previously included in the Regulatory Provisions of the LFCE; it has now been included within the LFCE to strength the activities and authorities of the CNA. This action is aiming to exclude from the investigation procedures, the information and documents under attorney-client privilege, and provided that there is no employment relationship between the economic agent and its legal advisors.
   1. 1.Precautionary measures. The asking right for the removal of precautionary measures (through giving a judicial guarantee) to the Antitrust Agency was eliminated.
   2. Advisory opinion. The Commission's authority to issue opinions regarding laws, regulations, agreements, circulars, and general administrative acts in the area of free competition and economic competition was eliminated.
5. Competition in telecom and broadcasting. Before the Reform, the competent authority on merger control, cartels and dominance in the telecom and broadcasting sector was the Federal Telecommunications Institute (IFT). Now, the CNA will assume these authorities in economic competition matters of the telecom market. 
6. Regulated markets. Regarding the participation of economic agents in strategic areas, the new LFCE adapts to the current constitutional Article 28 and reiterates that State Public Enterprises (CFE and PEMEX), as well as economic agents participating in strategic areas, are not a monopoly.

According to the transitional provisions of the Decree, (i) COFECE will continue operating until the new Commission is integrated, under the legal framework in force prior to the Decree, (ii) until the LFCE Regulations are issued, the guidelines and provisions that do not substantially oppose the new LFCE will be applicable, and (iii) as of the entry into force of the Decree, the deadlines for all investigation procedures conducted by COFECE and the IFT are suspended until the full integration of the Commission.

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