Mexico's Antitrust Enforcer Signals Tougher Stance in Six Strategic Markets

Six "Strategic Markets"

The CNA has identified six "strategic markets" selected according to their relevance to household spending, share of GDP, and impact on social welfare: (i) financial services; (ii) telecommunications and broadcasting; (iii) transport and logistics; (iv) agri-food; (v) health; and (vi) public procurement. The Program clarifies that designating strategic markets does not mean the CNA will neglect other sectors or that investigations must be launched every year in each sector. Rather, the designation is an instrument to guide institutional work where it is most needed.

The Program also calls for incorporating a gender perspective in the application of competition policy—meaning that the CNA will consider how anticompetitive conduct and market failures may disproportionately affect women as consumers, workers, and entrepreneurs.

Four Strategic Objectives and Lines of Action

The CNA's Institutional Program 2026-2030 frames competition enforcement as a tool to protect household purchasing power, arguing that concentrated markets and market power raise prices, reduce quality, and limit choice.

The Program defines four overarching objectives:

Objective 1. Combat anticompetitive practices that affect prices and the availability of goods and services for consumers. To this end, the authority intends to strengthen the detection and dismantling of anticompetitive conduct, facilitate access to complaint and reporting mechanisms for individuals and companies, sanction monopolistic practices and illegal mergers, and reinforce verification of compliance with its own resolutions. In furtherance of this objective, the CNA plans to vigorously defend its actions in anticompetitive-practice matters before the Federal Judiciary (Poder Judicial de la Federación), using all means provided under applicable law; to file criminal complaints (querellas penales), promoting the use of this power as a tool for the prosecution of anticompetitive conduct; and to initiate class actions (acciones colectivas) to recover, for the benefit of consumers, damages caused by monopolistic practices and illicit concentrations.

Objective 2. Eliminate barriers to competition that restrict the efficient functioning of markets. This involves addressing conditions that limit companies' entry, permanence, and expansion, as well as fostering conditions that reduce asymmetries among economic agents in the telecommunications and broadcasting sectors.

The CNA will exercise its power under Mexican Competition Law to designate "preponderant economic agents" in the telecommunications and broadcasting sectors—that is, operators holding more than 50% national market share by users, subscribers, audience, network traffic, or utilized capacity. Once designated, these operators will be subject to asymmetric regulatory measures, which may include obligations related to information disclosure, service quality, exclusive-dealing restrictions, tariff regulation, network infrastructure requirements (including local-loop unbundling), and potentially functional or structural separation. The CNA will also impose and periodically review measures on entities with substantial market power, evaluating whether existing regulation effectively protects competition and free market access. These measures will remain in effect until the CNA declares that conditions of effective competition exist in the relevant market.

Objective 3. Ensure efficiency in merger control to prevent anticompetitive harm in domestic markets. The authority plans to prevent excessive market concentration and to strengthen timely oversight of concentrations that should have been submitted for review under applicable regulations, thereby preserving competitive conditions across markets.

Under Mexican Competition Law, gun-jumping violations expose the responsible economic agents to fines of up to 8% of their revenues in Mexico (or up to 15% if the CNA had previously objected to the transaction), potential divestiture orders, and the legal nullity of the underlying transaction. Individuals who directly participated in or facilitated the violation may face personal fines and disqualification from serving as directors or officers for up to five years.

Objective 4. Foster a culture of competition. The fourth objective seeks to foster a culture of competition by promoting principles and benefits among economic agents, authorities, and consumers. This includes strengthening competitive conditions and legal compliance to prevent anticompetitive conduct, expanding national and international interinstitutional coordination to support more open markets, and positioning competition policy within the broader public agenda.

Leniency Program, Compliance Programs, and International Cooperation

Leniency Program. The Program promotes the CNA's Immunity and Sanction-Reduction Program (the Mexican equivalent of a leniency program) through sectoral information campaigns and accessible in-person and secure digital complaint channels that protect the confidentiality of applicants' identities. Under Mexican Competition Law, the first participant in a cartel (absolute monopolistic practice) to come forward and cooperate fully with the CNA may receive a reduction of its fine to the statutory minimum and immunity from criminal prosecution. Subsequent applicants may obtain reductions of up to 50%, 30%, or 20% of the maximum fine, depending on the chronological order of their applications and the usefulness of the evidence they provide. The Program signals that the CNA intends to broaden awareness of these benefits through targeted outreach to companies in the six strategic markets, with the goal of increasing the number and quality of leniency applications and improving cartel detection.

Compliance Programs. Under Mexican Competition Law, the CNA has the power to certify antitrust compliance programs implemented by economic agents (a certified program would be valid for three years), and the CNA may consider the existence of a duly certified compliance program as a mitigating factor when imposing sanctions. As of the date of this Commentary, the CNA is still developing the specific rules governing the certification process, which is expected to be finalized in the coming months. The Program signals that the CNA intends to actively promote the use of this certification framework as a preventive tool—encouraging companies, particularly those operating in the six strategic markets, to adopt robust internal compliance systems that enable early detection and prevention of antitrust violations.

International Cooperation. The CNA also plans to strengthen international and inter-institutional cooperation. As part of this initiative, it intends to pursue alliances with foreign competition authorities.

What This Means for Companies Operating in Mexico

The Program points to a significant step-up in enforcement intensity concentrated in the six strategic markets. Several developments are noteworthy:

• Increased criminal enforcement. The CNA is signaling an anticipated increase in the number of criminal complaints (querellas penales) referred to the public prosecutor.
• Strengthened analytical capacity. The CNA's investment in data analytics and information-management platforms, combined with vigorous judicial defense of resolutions, suggests the authority intends both to detect more unlawful conduct and to defend its sanctions robustly on appeal.
• Gun-jumping scrutiny. The Program's focus on detecting and sanctioning non-notified transactions means companies must carefully assess merger-notification obligations to avoid exposure.
• Preponderance designation. The designation of preponderant economic agents in the telecommunications and broadcasting sectors appears to be all but a foregone conclusion. Companies in those sectors should prepare for asymmetric regulation and the imposition of specific measures designed to reduce their market power.

Practical Recommendations

In light of the Program, companies operating in Mexico's financial services, telecommunications and broadcasting, transport and logistics, agri-food, health, and public procurement sectors should consider the following steps:

• Review and, when available, pursue certification of antitrust compliance programs in line with the CNA's forthcoming certification framework.
• Carefully assess merger-notification obligations to avoid gun-jumping exposure, particularly given the CNA's heightened detection efforts.
• Evaluate leniency and immunity options where cartel exposure exists, taking advantage of the CNA's Immunity and Sanction-Reduction Program.
• For telecommunications and broadcasting players, prepare for preponderance findings and the associated asymmetric regulatory measures.