MEXICO TRENDS AND DEVELOPMENTS Contributed by: Christian Lippert Helguera, Carlos Chávez Alanís, Juan Carlos Burgos Carbajal and Gerardo Rodríguez Aguilar, Galicia Abogados, S.C.
RFIs RFIs have steadily grown in length and complex - ity in Mexico over the past few years. Parties to a filing in Mexico almost always (north of 90% of the time) receive a request for infor - mation (RFI) from COFECE or IFT, as applicable. Most filings will only require standard information (organisational documents, financial informa - tion) and a customary back and forth with staff to answer questions and provide clarification on the information submitted with the application. On average, however, a quarter of all applicants will receive a second RFI, the scope and length of which is usually broader than the first one. Naturally, these filings will require closer and more prolonged interaction with staff to address concerns. Because the FCA features a maximum time - frame within which the competition authority must render a decision in merger control cases, which only starts after a filing has been perfected (ie, all issued RFIs have been satisfied and the agency has granted formal acceptance of the filing), responding to RFIs usually takes quite some time as formal requests are customarily followed by informal requests (which staff views as clarifications of submitted information). This exercise usually forces the applicants to ask for extensions to allow staff to continue their review and avoid the risk of having the filing dismissed. This trend of extending the period between the submission of an application and the formal admission of it by the agency could be further exacerbated in the future as the Bill proposes to reduce the maximum timeframe that the CNA will have to render a decision (from 60 business days to 30 business days).
in the last months of COFECE and IFT and the first few months of operation of the CNA. Timing Review periods in merger control filings have increased significantly over the past few years as agencies ever more resort to extensive information requests and market testing. Our assessment is that the Merger Control Section of COFECE has seen an important increase in cases in the recent past, and that such trend will continue in the next months, primarily given the already low thresholds (which the Bill will lower further) and recent guidance and precedent that broaden the scope of what the agency considers a reportable transaction (for instance, COFECE views as potentially reportable transactions cer - tain joint marketing, research and development and infrastructure sharing agreements). We thus believe that review periods in Mexico will continue to increase and that even non-con - troversial filings will still have to wait around two- and-a-half to three years after filing to receive clearance. Transition to the new agency Another variable that could potentially further delay the clearance of reportable transactions is the transition from COFECE and IFT to the CNA. Although it is true that the Bill does not contemplate a stay of pending proceedings until the CNA is up and running, the reality is that transitioning these cases from one agency to the other may very well result in unexpected delays as the newly appointed commissioners and staffers could need time to review these matters before continuing with their respective proceedings.
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