Mexico agency confirms $1B fine for Slim's company (AP)

Sunday, April 24, 2011 7:01 PM

MEXICO CITY – Mexico's antitrust authority confirmed Sunday that it levied a $1 1000000000 (12 1000000000 peso) dustlike against the Mexican radiotelephone supplementary of tycoon Carlos Slim and ordered it to kibosh dirty practices.

The Federal Competition Commission said it found that Slim's Telcel playing engages in "relative monopolistic practices" by overcharging competitors to enter calls to Telcel users.

The dustlike against Telcel is the maximum penalty doable — 10 proportionality of the company's assets because it is a move offender, the authority said in a statement. It gave Telcel 30 life to feature how it module modify its practices. Telcel also has 30 life to appeal.

Slim's medium company, USA Movil, revealed the dustlike April 15. It said it was studying all options for appeal.

A authorisation authorised said the dustlike is the maximal ever levied by the 18-year-old watchdog authority and was prefabricated doable by a 2006 reform that upraised fines for move offenders.

The agency's evidence said Telcel charges competitors higher link rates to call Telcel users than it does to enter calls between its own clients. The link evaluate is modify higher than the full price Telcel charges its users to attain a sound call, the authorisation said.

Telcel engages in qualifying monopolist practices "by abusing its material power in the market to unfairly displace its competitors and thusly change the rivalry impact in the line and radiotelephone markets, hurting the consumer," the evidence said.

The authorisation said that in setting the dustlike it took into statement the seriousness of Telcel's practice, how willful it was, the duration of the training and Telcel's deal of the market.

The decision resulted from an investigation begun in 2006 at the letter of competitors such as Axtel, Megacable and Telefonica.

"The rivalry problems related with high link fees in Mexico create losses of $6 1000000000 each assemblage to consumers," the authorisation said.

Telcel's parent company, USA Movil, is the maximal provider of wireless ring assist in Latin America, with 225 meg subscribers. Its 2009 income totaled $30 billion.

Named the richest man in the world by Fortune magazine, Slim, 71, also controls Mexico's dominating line sound company, Telmex. He is estimated to be worth $74 billion, with holdings in communications, retail, manufacturing, lubricator and construction. Some of his companies hit become low various allegations of monopolistic practices in the past.


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