Mexico’s National Antitrust Commission (CNA) has fined Grupo Financiero Banorte and the delivery platform Rappi MXN$19.9 million (US$1.2 million) for unauthorized market concentration.
The penalty relates to the strategic alliance (joint venture) established in 2020 by the Colombian company and the Mexican financial group to create Tarjetas de Futuro, under which they launched the RappiCard credit card the following year. Both companies held equal shares in the joint venture, with each holding 50%.
“The sanctioned companies entered into a transaction whereby Banorte acquired the power to intervene in Rappi’s credit card business decisions, without this transaction having been previously analyzed and authorized by the regulatory authority,” the CNA stated in a press release.
The antitrust regulator explained that prior merger control is an essential preventative mechanism to protect consumers and businesses from potentially anticompetitive conditions because a merger can change prices, quality, and consumer options, and once a transaction is completed, its effects can be difficult to reverse.
The law requires that certain transactions be notified and await the authority’s decision before proceeding. “By avoiding compliance, the parties put at risk the consumers and businesses that the law seeks to protect,” the National Antitrust Commission (CNA) stated.
The regulator noted that the sanctioned companies can file the corresponding legal actions against the decision in specialized courts.
“At Rappi, we respect the authorities and the applicable legal framework in Mexico, and we reiterate our commitment to our users, the Mexican market, and our continued collaboration with regulatory authorities, always in accordance with current legislation,” a Rappi spokesperson told Bloomberg Line in an email.
Grupo Financiero Banorte was also contacted but did not respond immediately as it was a non-business day.
The sanction against the delivery platform and the Mexican bank comes a few months after Banorte finalized the purchase of the entire RappiCard credit card business for US$50 million (MXN$863 million) in December 2025.
The purchase includes a 15-year marketing agreement that allows Banorte to exclusively offer financial products and services to the app’s customers within its ecosystem.
Following the acquisition, Banorte received the loan portfolio and the operation of RappiCard, and the decision was made to dissolve the Tarjetas del Futuro company.
This story was updated at 7:33 p.m. in the summary, with Rappi’s statement in the seventh paragraph.
Source: bloomberglinea
