Slim Near Victory as Mexico’s Biggest Antitrust Case Loses Steam

Billionaire Carlos Slim’s Mexican wireless carrier is close to prevailing in the country’s biggest antitrust case, a victory over a government seeking to crack down on monopolistic behavior.

Only a reversal by one of the nation’s five antitrust commissioners, an unprecedented last-minute political maneuver or a judge’s intervention can salvage the government’s record $1 billion fine against America Movil SAB. Otherwise, the fine under review by the antitrust commission will be overturned or cut when the decision comes around at the end of September. The antitrust agency issued the fine in April, saying America Movil had committed anticompetitive practices in the market for fees charged to rivals to connect calls. America Movil asked the agency to review the fine, the first step in the appeals process for antitrust cases, and won a victory in June when the commission recused its own chairman from the case.