Washington – The Computer & Communications Industry Association submitted comments on the Mexican competition authority’s (COFECE) preliminary report on competition in the e-commerce retail market. The COFECE report identified possible barriers to competition in e-commerce and concluded that two companies, Amazon and Mercado Libre, hold an 85 percent share of the Mexican market.
CCIA’s comments underscore how COFECE’s market definition in the report fails to consider the robust competition between e-commerce platforms and brick-and-mortar stores as well as the omnichannel competitive dynamics of the retail market. The comments additionally warn against the potential risks for the Mexican economy of imposing corrective measures to only two companies that, based on a recent study from CCIA’s Research Center, are not even among the 15 largest retailers in Mexico.
CCIA has advocated for technology policy that advances competition and innovation for over 50 years.
The following can be attributed to CCIA Vice President of Global Competition and Regulatory Policy Krisztian Katona:
“Competition enforcement and policy should continue to focus on consumers and protect them from anticompetitive practices. However, the proposed corrective measures in COFECE’s preliminary report could end up harming Mexican consumers, while benefiting the large retailers that compete with Amazon and Mercado Libre.”
“The e-commerce model and the eruption of new digital players in the retail industry have pushed traditional brick-and-mortar retailers to adopt multichannel solutions and more efficient business models, leading to lower prices and more options for Mexican consumers. Forcing corrective measures on two e-commerce platforms ignores the realities of an omnichannel retail market in which the investigated companies are not even among the largest players.”