Mexican Regulator Probes App Stores

Recently, both the Federal Economic Competition Commission (COFECE) and the Federal Telecommunications Institute (IFT) each publicly announced the launch of separate, seemingly unrelated, antitrust investigation processes on the app store space in Mexico.

COFECE’s investigation was initiated ex officio and was announced on September 30 through a press release published on its website. Per COFECE’s press release, this investigation:

will focus on potential vertical anti-competitive practices (prácticas monópolicas relativas) in the relevant market that COFECE has identified as “development, distribution and payment processing of mobile applications and digital content, and other related services.”
was initiated due to “reasons that objectively suggest the presence of potential vertical anti-competitive practices in the relevant market.”

A week after COFECE’s press release, on October 7, IFT announced through a publication in the Federal Register (Diario Oficial de la Federación) that it has launched a similar investigation.

Unlike COFECE’s, the investigation launched by IFT came as a result of a claim filed by an undisclosed petitioner, and while also centered on potential vertical anti-competitive practices in the app store space, IFT has identified a broader relevant market subject matter of the investigation as “app marketplace for mobile operating systems and related markets.”

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