Regulators to vote today on $1 billion fine against tycoon Carlos Slim

By Cyntia Barrera
Reuters

Regulators are due to vote today, Monday, on one of Mexico's biggest antitrust cases, a $1 billion fine for tycoon Carlos Slim, which has been bogged down in court appeals and disputes for a year.

Federal competition commission Cofeco slapped Telcel, the cash cow of Slim's giant telecoms company America Movil, with the record sanction in April 2011 after ruling the company charged excessive prices to wireless and wireline competitors to connect to its network.

Telcel appealed the fine and even managed to ban Cofeco's President Eduardo Perez Motta from taking part in a second vote, where the agency will decide if it ratifies, drops or modifies the fine against Slim, the world's richest man.

Perez Motta got into trouble last year with comments he made about the agency's crackdown on Telcel.

The Slim company complained of unfair treatment by Cofeco's chief regulator, filing a motion that cut Perez Motta out of that second vote, which was originally expected in September.

Getting Slim to pay such a large sum would be a major victory for Cofeco, whose ability to enforce the rules in a country where many major industries are concentrated in the hands of a few powerful families is seen as weak.

www.reuters.com/article/2012/04/29/us-mexico-slim-fine-idUSBRE83S0EV20120429