Competition Law in Latin America and the Caribbean: Statutory Harmonization and Convergence

Abstract:     
The general aim of this paper is to show how legislatures have shaped competition law in Latin America and the Caribbean (hereinafter LATCA). It also makes an assesment of the processes of harmonization and the resulting convergence of competition law in the region. It is found that legal families and foreign trade policies have shaped competition law in LATCA, and that aggregate market structures and different development levels have also helped to define the institutional arrangement of competition law in the region. After defining the three pillars of competition law - enforcement systems and structure, abuse of dominance and anti-competitive agreements - it is shown how LATCA national jurisdictions' competition law have converged, concluding that statutory prohibitions of anticompetitive agreements and abuse of dominance are very similar but enforcement and remedial systems are divergent and highly related to legal origins. The text concludes showing the extent to which there is uniformity of competition law in LATCA.

Number of Pages in PDF File: 32

Keywords: Comparative competition law, latin america, caribbean, enforcement structures, statutory structure, antitrust law,

JEL Classification: K20, K21

working papers series