Superintendencia de Industria y Comercio

The Coordinator of the Mergers Working Group, Mrs. Liliana Cruz Pinzón participated, on behalf of the SIC, in the Working Party 2 (Competition and Regulation), Working Party 3 (Co-operation and Enforcement) and the Competition Committee Meetings, as well as in the Global Forum on Competition, that were organized by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). These meetings were held in Paris, France, from November 28 to December 2 of 2016.

The referred meetings sought to bring together high-level representatives of the OECD member countries in order to discuss issues of global interest related to the Protection of the Competition. Colombia is not a member of this organization yet, but it is conducting an accession process to obtain such designation in the near future.

The participation of SIC was very important because, in June of 2015, the country was accepted in the Competition Committee of this important organization. One of the main international commitments that arises from such acceptance is to maintain an active and dynamic participation in the academic activities promoted by the OECD, with the assistance of high-level advisers who can provide expertise and technical knowledge to the different discussions.

Considering the above, Mrs. Cruz Pinzón made a presentation on "Decision making in merger cases", where she exposed the most important mergers operations the SIC has studied in the last years and the criteria of analysis it has taken into account to determine their viability. In addition, she made a presentation on "Independence of Competition Authorities - From Design to Practice", where she talked about the issuance of Decree 1817 of 2015, norm that establishes a fixed term for the Superintendent of Industry and Commerce - equivalent to the presidential term .