The Competition Tribunal dismissed a lawsuit by AFEX Transferencias y Cambios Ltda. And AFEX Agentes de Valores Ltda. (from now on, AFEX) against Banco de Chile, without costs. The lawsuit stated that the unilateral closure of 26 of AFEX’s banking accounts by Banco de Chile was against free competition.
The decision stated that conditions to deem that conduct as anticompetitive were not met in this case, since Banco de Chile’s banking accounts are not an essential input for AFEX to provide financial services, and could be substituted with accounts in other banks. Therefore, by closing its banking accounts, Banco de Chile could not have excluded AFEX from the financial services markets in which the plaintiff and the defendant compete.
The foregoing holds, even given that the Tribunal stated that Banco de Chile did not prove its justifications for the banking accounts having been closed in the first place.