Last Wednesday, the First Chamber of the Supreme Court of Justice of the Nation (SCJN) denied an injunction to Cancún International Airport seeking to invalidate a fine of 72,540,000 pesos (approximately US$3.6 million) for engaging in monopolistic practices by denying certain groups of taxi drivers access to its facilities.
By a unanimous vote of four, the Chamber rejected the airport operator’s arguments, which sought to declare unconstitutional portions of four articles of the Federal Economic Competition Law, which served as the basis for the proceedings and the sanction imposed by the Federal Economic Competition Commission (Cofece) in 2019.
Under Justice Margarita Ríos Farjat’s proposal, the Court’s justices determined that these articles are constitutional, but referred the case to a federal court for a definitive resolution of the matter, including confirming, modifying, or repealing the multimillion-dollar fine imposed by the Cofece.
According to the court file, in February 2016, the Cofece received a complaint from a company against Cancún Airport for an alleged monopolistic practice. Since 2010, it has prevented new entrants from entering the federal passenger transportation market (taxi) originating at the airport managed by Asur, which is known as denial of treatment.
In June 2019, the Cofece Plenary Court resolved to sanction the airport operator with a fine of 72,540,000 pesos, “for having engaged in the alleged monopolistic practice over a period of eight years, between 2010 and 2018.”
The airport challenged the above, but a District Judge denied the injunction based on the challenged regulations, but granted it against the Cofece sanction. Both parties filed appeals, which were accepted by the SCJN.
Source: reportur
