In recent travels to Central America, it's been interesting
to see the number of American companies operating and distributing
in the region. So in a recent telephone conference with other
antitrust practitioners, I was intrigued when competition law in
Latin America was discussed. I learned that, as with our
firm, as the economy becomes more global and more US companies
distribute abroad, antitrust attorneys are receiving more and more
questions about antitrust issues in the Americas.
While antitrust laws in many Latin American countries have
similar elements to those in the US, unlike US antitrust laws,
passed over a century ago, most countries' laws are new and
rapidly changing and evolving. This leads to less clarity in
the meaning of the law and less predictability as to enforcement.
Because of the newness of the laws and the frequency of
change in the law, there are few judicial decisions in many
jurisdictions to help define the scope of the antitrust
