On September 30th, 2019, the Regulatory Regulations for the qualification of information derived from legal counsel provided to economic agents (the “Regulations”) issued by the Federal Economic Competition Commission (“COFECE”) came into full force and effect.

Protected information.

Pursuant to the Regulations, unless the economic agent grants a written waiver, COFECE will not consider or regard as evidence the information that contains communications between an economic agent and his legal counsel if the purpose of such information is to provide legal advice. The Regulations do not regulate the information derived from advice by other non-legal professionals.

Qualification request.

To exercise this right, the economic agent must file a qualification request regarding the relevant information, which must be addressed to COFECE’s General Direction in charge of the proceeding at hand. The request must comply with, among others, the following requirements: submit a description of each communication for which protection is requested and their identification data, as well as evidence that the lawyer providing the advice is authorized to practice law. During inspection visits, the economic agent may request protection over each file obtained by COFECE, which must be established in the inspection visit’s act, and COFECE must adopt the required safeguard measures. Once the visit is completed, the economic agent will have a 20-business day term, which may be extended once, to file the corresponding qualification request. Likewise, the Regulations impose an obligation on all COFECE’s officers to give notice to the owners of the information if, when carrying out their functions, they encounter any document that may contain communications between an economic agent and his legal counsel.