On November 20, 2024, the deputies of the Congress of Guatemala approved Decree 32-2024, the “Competition Law”, as a matter of National Urgency. This approval marks a significant milestone for the country, seeking to promote a competitive market, attract foreign investment, and promote national economic growth.

This new regulation aims to prevent anti-competitive and monopolistic practices or those that tend to limit market access for small or new Economic Agents (traders, companies and corporations). All of this under the supervision of a new regulatory body, called the Superintendency of Competition, which will be an autonomous and decentralized entity.

This law provides that the Superintendency of Competition may act ex officio or as a result of a complaint from a private individual, in which case the Economic Agent is obliged to provide all possible information to determine whether or not an anti-competitive practice is being implemented, through an administrative process, prioritizing the right to defense and the principle of innocence. In this sense, it establishes infractions, prohibitions and provides coercion to the entity in charge of monitoring compliance with sanctions when anti-competitive practices are determined in the Guatemalan market. They may be sanctioned up to a maximum of two hundred thousand current minimum wages. For this purpose, it is noted that individuals or legal entities, national or foreign, will be subject to this law.

As a consequence of its approval, the Monopoly Crime is repealed, with only economic sanctions, and articles of the Commercial Code, the Consumer and User Protection Law and the State Contracting Law are modified. Likewise, it establishes the supplementary application of the Competition Law with respect to Economic Agents that are governed by their own sectoral laws that contain competition rules and that have regulatory authority, with these prevailing over the Competition Law. Which will surely give room for interpretation in each case.

Finally, the entry into force of this Law has been defined in two stages, the first starting in January 2025 and the next two years after its publication.

It should be mentioned that this still needs to be sanctioned by the President of the Republic of Guatemala and then promulgated and published, in accordance with the legislative process.

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