America Movil Antitrust Reversal Isn’t Done Deal, Officials Say

July 01, 2011, 10:27 AM EDT By Crayton Harrison

July 1 (Bloomberg) -- America Movil SAB, the wireless carrier controlled by Carlos Slim, doesn’t have a guaranteed victory in its bid to overturn a $1 billion fine for anticompetitive practices after a legal development in its favor this week, two antitrust commissioners said.

Luis Alberto Ibarra Pardo and Miguel Flores Bernes, who both voted against the fine in April, said they won’t necessarily vote the same way when considering America Movil’s appeal. Banco Santander SA said this week the two commissioners are making a reversal of the record fine more likely.

“Each case is reviewed on its own merits,” Ibarra Pardo said yesterday in an interview in the antitrust agency’s office in Mexico City. “There are arguments, from the economic point of view and the legal point of view, that could be contradictory.”

Ibarra Pardo and Flores Bernes both voted this week to bar Eduardo Perez Motta, Mexico’s antitrust chief, from the vote on America Movil’s appeal, saying he had shown bias on the matter in radio and TV interviews in May. That recusal made a vote to overturn the fine more likely, Gregorio Tomassi, a Santander analyst, said in a research note dated yesterday.

America Movil, based in Mexico City, fell 10 centavos to 15.70 pesos at 9:55 a.m. New York time in Mexico City trading. The shares had dropped 11 percent this year before today. Tomassi, based in Mexico City, recommends buying the shares.

Perez Motta and another commissioner, Rodrigo Morales Elcoro, voted in favor of the fine in April. The result was a 2- 2 tie because the fifth commissioner, Agustin Navarro Gergely, had recused himself because of a conflict of interest. As president, Perez Motta’s vote broke the tie.

Anticompetition Practices?

America Movil, which controls 70 percent of Mexico’s wireless market, committed anticompetitive practices in the market for fees charged to connect calls from rivals’ networks, the commission concluded with that vote.

With Navarro Gergely recused and Perez Motta unable to participate, the remaining three commissioners would overturn the fine if their votes remain the same as before. Morales Elcoro and Perez Motta declined to comment yesterday.

“It’s very unfortunate. I don’t like being in this situation, and I wish all of my colleagues could participate in the vote,” Flores Bernes said yesterday in a phone interview. “But the law is the law.”

In a dissenting opinion to the decision exempting Perez Motta from the appeal vote, Morales Elcoro said the recusal didn’t have a solid legal foundation.

“They’re taking this incident as a way to control the public communication of the commission,” he wrote. “They’re converting the incident as a way to censor a technical opinion.”

Public Comments

The opinion issued by Ibarra Pardo and Flores Bernes cited examples of TV and radio interviews in which Perez Motta argued against America Movil’s claims that the amount of the fine couldn’t be based on previous antitrust violations by the company, a concept known as “reincidence,” because the alleged violations were different in nature.

“You don’t have to re-commit the same infraction for it to be considered reincidence,” Perez Motta said in a May 10 interview on TV Azteca SAB’s network, according to the opinion. “That’s an abuse of dominance.”

Perez Motta’s removal from the appeal process won’t have a chilling effect on antitrust officials’ ability to express their opinions, Ibarra Pardo said. While commissioners should be transparent about their opinions after a vote, they can’t express their views on pending matters, he said.

Slim’s Wealth

Part of Perez Motta’s duties include representing the antitrust agency in public, and his comments to news media in the past generally won’t affect his ability to participate in future votes, Flores Bernes said.

“This decision was made based on specific declarations about a specific company when we were in the process of resolving an appeal,” he said.

Slim, 71, was declared the world’s richest man in March for a second year by Forbes magazine. America Movil represents about 62 percent of his $72.6 billion in publicly disclosed holdings, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

--Editors: Peter Elstrom, James Callan

To contact the reporter on this story: Crayton Harrison in Mexico City at tharrison5@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Peter Elstrom at pelstrom@bloomberg.net

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Emerging Technologies America Has Fallen Behind On

There are many new technologies from all over the world, including America. But the majority of these emerging technologies are hot technology that America doesn't have. Japan has seemed to corner the market on many of the up and coming technologies such as ones that are connected to computers, consumer electronics and a host of other things that America needs to catch up on.

According to the JD Power Asian Pacific 2007 Japan Automotive Study, eight of the 14 new technologies that draw predominantly high levels of consumer interests were either related to fuel economy, safety or the environment.

It's not the Japan is the only one who is working in the emerging technologies; it's just that America is falling behind in their work within development of new technologies. Funding plays a major role in the fact that America is behind in the technology department when it comes to certain places emerging technology is needed, such as the medical community where monies need to be raised in order to sustain the research. Japan works with many different companies that fund their research in emerging technologies because these companies know how important it is to be on the cutting edge of the science and consumer technology front. Some American companies are starting to get on board when it comes to "going green" and saving the environment, because they know this is a growing concern of many Americans today.

The study also found that technologies such as extra airbags in the automobiles the likes of which are knee airbags and anti-whiplash seats have garnered much interest among consumers worldwide. These implements are in place now in Japan however this is a life-saving technology America doesn't have. They are working on it however they just don't have it as yet.

Japan's emerging technologies in the IT - Information Technology and computers in general have surpassed America for a long time. Many of the gadgets and computer components that the American companies use today we purchased and received from overseas, simply because we do not have the technology to build these components ourselves. Japan, like many of the other Asian nations, have what it takes to build the emerging technologies to put together smarter, faster computers and technological gadgets such as smarter cell phones, iPods that you can watch full-feature movies on, digital watches and calculators that do a whole host of other things besides keep time and calculate numbers.

The software industry is another place where Japan's emerging technologies surpasses Americas. Many of these software programs come in the form of games but others have practical applications in the business world. Japan's edge in the game world far surpasses Americas but we seem content purchasing Japan's gaming technologies. However, America is working hard in the consumer technology industry to come up with better, faster and more efficient ways of doing things. The medical community is one place where America has outdone Japan; medical technology in America now surpasses most countries in developing technology related to medicine and health care.

Both countries are far from finding cures for fatal diseases but they are getting close to developing technology that will help us bring cures to these once devastating diseases.

Chaashni Mahmoud writes technology, product and services reviews for The Oxford Chronicle. She has been a systems engineer and computer scientist for 15 years and continues to work in the industry today. You can read more about technology from Chaashni at [http://www.oxfordchronicle.com] and http://www.flying-toasters.blogspot.com

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