Mexico’s Federal Competition Commission (Cofeco) has lobbied Congress to increase fines for companies and impose prison sentences for executives found using competitive practices, according to a Financial Times report.

Under current law, a company has to have committed anti-competitive practices three times within 10 years in order to be subject to break-up by Cofeco, the report said.  Eduardo Perez Motta, Cofeco’s chief, said that such a high legal standard made break-ups almost impossible to prove and carry out.

The threat or imposition of stiffer penalties on Mexican companies for anti-competitive behavior would be a positive development for Mexican consumers and business.  Several sectors of Mexico’s economy appear to  be dominated by one or two major players.