Anticipating Merger Guidelines from Mexico's Commission on Competition
15 February 2011
By Dr. Elizabeth M. Bailey and Dr. Agustin Ros
Eduardo Perez Motta, Chairman of Mexico's Federal Commission on Competition (CFC), has indicated that the CFC is likely, for the first time, to issue guidelines related to merger analysis in 2011. In this article from the International Antitrust Bulletin, NERA Special Consultant Dr. Elizabeth M. Bailey and Vice President Dr. Agustin Ros describe several of the key updates made to the US Horizontal Merger Guidelines in 2010 and discuss how the US guidelines may influence the merger guidelines expected to be released by the CFC in 2011. Based on their experience with merger analysis in the US and competition policy in Mexico, the Dr. Bailey and Dr. Ros believe that the CFC's merger guidelines are likely to lay out an economic framework for evaluating quantitatively whether a merger is likely to raise competitive concerns. Such guidelines are likely to lead to a substantial change in the way in which counsel for the merging parties develop and present analyses to the CFC, increasing the merging parties' obligation to present rigorous economic evidence to the CFC.
