On 21 July 2014, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development published a report called “Assessment of Merger Control in Chile”. The report’s findings emphasize the importance of a functioning merger control system: in the first part of the report, investigators describe the Chilean regime on merger controls, closing up on its legal framework, merger control jurisdiction, review powers and procedures. The second part of the report exclusively analyses potential options to revise the current system in order to improve both its effectiveness and transparency. Chilean lawmakers have already announced to respond to these proposals. According to the Chilean Minister of Economy, Congress will shortly be presented a draft bill on the matter. Given bill will include, amongst others, an obligation for the parties of a merger or similar concentration operation to file an authorization request before the competent national authorities. Also, the intended reform will strengthen the faculties of the Chilean antitrust authority, called National Economic Prosecutor (“FNE”), and increase the fines applicable for antitrust breaches. In practice, the announced reform, which is expected to crystallize in the third quarter 2014, will overlap with another piece of legislation. The latter has been introduced to Congress on 22 April 2014 and seeks to promote small and medium enterprises by strengthening the country’s legal framework on merger controls. In a nutshell, reforming the Chilean antitrust law, will create certainty for the parties of a concentration operation on the legality of the same as currently the filing regime for merger control is voluntary and criteria or thresholds for the notification of an operation are not established in the law. Click here for findings of the OECD-report “Assessment of Merger Control in Chile”: Click here for the draft Bill, introduced to the Chilean Congress on 22 April:
