The Limits of Competition Law in Latin America

Governance on lithium mining shareholdings: expanding Environment, Social and Governance (ESG) indicators to economic regulation and raw material politics

“…Though concentration of economic activities is often addressed as a source and cause of market failures, monopolies in Chile are not necessarily banned by FNE nor do they necessarily fall against Chilean law. 17 Competition agencies in Latin America are rather askew into the breath of what they might intervene on (Peña 2012). Events in equity markets that attend to operations and politics around materials may then be left with wider ranges of disregard or tolerance.…”

“…In Latin America, economic regulation misfits with competition law due to the market-orientation of economic regulation (Dunne 2015;Peña 2012). Peña (2012) notes the contextual particularities of competition regulation agencies in Latin America to be entrenched in politics and limited experience.…”

“…In Latin America, economic regulation misfits with competition law due to the market-orientation of economic regulation (Dunne 2015;Peña 2012). Peña (2012) notes the contextual particularities of competition regulation agencies in Latin America to be entrenched in politics and limited experience. As hinted by Irarrázabal (2019), it seems that the view of FNE as competition agency is solely focused on limiting economic concentration activities and particularly, if not exclusively, concerned on monopolies and mergers.…”

Competition Law Fragmentation in a Globalizing World

“…10) criticize intense review of competition decisions by the Chilean Supreme Court, seeing it as a failure to acknowledge the expertise of the agency and a judicial concern about the excess of economic analysis by the agency. The interventionist Chilean experience contrasts with the Latin American experience more generally, with Peña (2012, Ch. 15) noting the weakness of the judicial systems due to limited resources and technical knowledge in general and in relation to competition law in particular (Brazil being something of an exception).…”

“…The analysis of competition law in Asia is relatively optimistic when compared to the enormous challenges identified in Latin America. Peña (2012, Ch. 15) points to how competition policy—which is often imposed—is a result of the “Washington Consensus,” a term Williamson coined in 1989 to describe a set of economic policies that Latin American countries should implement and on which he believed there was broad consensus in Washington, DC, among its political elites and technocrats involved in international finance institutes, think‐tanks, government economic agencies, and the Federal Reserve (Williamson 1990, 2008).…”