Dear readers,
I was reading the news this morning and I found an interesting piece of news involving antitrust enforcement in Latin America: the Chilean Antitrust Authorities (TDLC) put the merger between LAN (Chilean’s largest air carrier) and TAM (Brazilian’s largest air carrier) on hold. Following the request of a consumer association worried about the concentration in Santiago-São Paulo trunk route, the Chilean TDLC put the merger on hold (click here for the full content), but the CADE did not object the merger (at least, not up to the moment).
I have been following antitrust news in Brazil for more than one decade and this seems to be the first case involving a Latin American merger which has to deal with contradictory decisions coming from different jurisdictions. Although the US and the EU have always had their disputes over jurisdiction, I had never heard of something similar in Latin America. Maybe it is time to start how to solve this kind of conflict, which tends to become more and more often.
It would be interesting to hear something from our Chilean readers.
Derecho y Políticas de Libre Competencia en América Latina 
La reforma del año 2009 al Decreto Ley 211, de 1973, legislación sobre competencia, permitió que la FNE pudiera alcanzar acuerdos extrajudiciales con agentes investigados, con la aprobación del Tribunal de Defensa de la Libre Competencia (TDLC).
Esa misma reforma amplió el espectro de personas que podían hacer consultas ante el TDLC por operaciones que pudieran afectar la competencia, siempre que tuvieran «interés legítimo». Es decir, hay un tema procesal a dirimir: la legitimidad del consultante.
La consulta de la Asociación de Consumidores, CONADECUS, está disponible acá: http://www.tdlc.cl/DocumentosMultiples/Consulta_CONADECUS.pdf
La propuesta de acuerdo FNE-LAN, acá: http://tinyurl.com/4qy8ejw
Y la decisión del TDLC, acá: http://tinyurl.com/4try7x4
Thank you!
Just one question! I had the impression that the negative impact of the merger would be in the Santiago-São Paulo trunk route. Assuming the premise is correct, couldn’t the TDLC have frozen just part of the transaction? I am asking, because this si what normally happens in Brazil.