Merger control is at one of the cores of the practice and is central to the execution of significant transactions in Mexico.   We advise clients from the earliest stages of deal planning, helping them assess reportability, substantive risk, transaction timing, gun-jumping concerns, information exchange, negotiation of antitrust covenants, filing strategy and potential remedies.

The Firm represents clients before the National Antitrust Commission, and its work includes pre-merger filings, administrative procedures, constitutional amparo proceedings and leniency applications.   We represent clients in approximately 35% of merger control cases resolved year by year, including approximately 85% of the most complex cases.  That market share reflects the degree to which domestic and international clients rely on the Firm in transactions where competition clearance is not ancillary to the deal, but one of the determinants of execution certainty.

Our lawyers regularly work as Mexican antitrust counsel in cross-border transactions led by international firms, and as lead counsel where the Mexican regulatory strategy is central to closing.

Competition investigations in Mexico can place substantial pressure on a company’s business, management and commercial strategy.  The Firm represents clients in investigations involving alleged absolute monopolistic practices, relative monopolistic practices, abuse of dominance, barriers to entry, essential inputs, market investigations and unlawful concentrations.

Our work covers the full life cycle of an investigation: initial risk assessment, document and data preservation, internal fact-finding, engagement with the authority, response strategy, evidence management, settlement or leniency considerations, and defense before administrative bodies and courts.  The team also advises on dawn raids, including mock dawn raids and internal investigations designed to help clients prepare before a crisis occurs.

Our Firm’s competition litigators add a critical dimension to this work, including matters involving anticompetitive behavior, merger control and other alleged infringements of Mexican competition law.  This provides the practice with a preventive litigation perspective that is valuable when clients must defend a position before the authorities while preserving options for constitutional challenge.

Competition risk also arises in ordinary-course business decisions.   We advise clients on pricing and distribution policies, non-compete agreements, competitor interactions, information exchanges, participation in trade associations, public bids, joint ventures, platform activity and other commercial arrangements that require antitrust analysis under Mexican law.

The objective is not only to identify legal risk, but to help clients make decisions that work commercially.  Legal 500 describes Creel’s team as “true experts with a very broad knowledge of the business and operations,” and notes that the team is praised for understanding client needs.  Chambers similarly reports that clients view our lawyers as business partners who know the company and industry, and who provide excellent response times and technical capability.

The practice also advises on competition compliance programs, internal audits and training, helping clients reduce risk before it becomes the subject of an authority investigation.  This work is especially important in sectors where market structure, regulation, data, pricing, distribution and competitor interactions can raise complex issues, including technology, telecommunications, energy, manufacturing and financial services.

The Firm’s competition practice has particular strength where antitrust law intersects with regulation.     That intersection is especially important in telecommunications, media, energy, infrastructure, transportation, financial services and other sectors in which transactions or conduct may require review by more than one authority.

For clients operating in regulated or technology-driven markets, Creel’s value is the ability to connect competition analysis with sector regulation, transactional execution and litigation strategy.  That integrated view allows clients to anticipate how competition authorities may evaluate market definition, barriers to entry, essential facilities, data, platform dynamics, vertical relationships and remedies.