The Competition Tribunal ruled in favor of the National Economic Prosecutor’s Office in a lawsuit against Sociedad Agrícola y Ganadera Palo Santo Limitada (“Buses San Carlos”), Empresa de Transportes EM Bus Ltda. (“EM Bus”), Mr. José Luis Lazo Sánchez, owner of the company Buses Ruta Muermos (“Ruta Muermos”) and Transportes Barrios y Cía. Ltda. (“Buses Barrios”). The Tribunal declared that these companies incurred in practices against Article 3 of Decree Law N° 211 in the market of rural public transport between the cities of Puerto Montt and Los Muermos. An agreement between these companies was proved, and this agreement not only was fit to give them market power that could be abused –which by itself would have been enough to sanction them–, but it also produced a coordinated increase of ticket prices in the route. The Tribunal imposed the maximum fine that the National Economic Prosecutor’s Office requested after a partial agreement with the defendants, this is, a fine of 12.5 Annual Tributary Units or UTA (approximately US $11,000) to “Buses San Carlos” and “EM Bus” –for their greater participation in the agreement– and a fine of 2.5 Annual Tributary Units or UTA (approximately US $2,000) to “Ruta Muermos” and “Buses Barrios”, since these two companies were victims of retaliatory actions when they tried to abandon the agreement. The defendants had to pay Tribunal costs.
