Bio

Carlos Mena Labarthe advises and represents clients in antitrust/competition and regulation matters. He has been involved in the most important antitrust cases in Mexico and Latin America in recent years including cartel, abuse of dominance and market investigations. He has also obtained merger approval for complex transactions from authorities in Mexico and frequently leads antitrust compliance efforts for major companies. He also coordinates antitrust filings in Latin American jurisdictions. Prior to joining the Firm in July 2017, Mr. Mena worked for more than ten years at the Mexican competition authority, where apart from being the first head of the Investigative Authority, he was Director General for Cartel Investigations and Head of the Planning, Public Relations and International Affairs Unit. He also worked at the United States’ Federal Trade Commission. He also was the representative of Mexico in various international forums, including the OECD, and the International Competition Network. At the authority, he developed the investigation procedures, including their Dawn Raid procedures, the Leniency Program, the forensic technology laboratory and the Market Intelligence Unit. He led paradigmatic cases in sectors such as food, medicine, hospital services, transportation and financial services, among others. He was also responsible for negotiating the current Federal Economic Competition Law with congress. Mr. Mena obtained his Bachelor of Laws degree from ITAM with honors in 2003. He also obtained a master’s degree in business law from the Madrid Bar Association in Spain, with notable mention in 2004, and another master’s Degree in Economic Regulation by the London School of Economics and Political Science of the United Kingdom with the prize for the best performance of his class in 2005. In the academic field, he has been a professor at the Autonomous Technological Institute of Mexico (ITAM) since 2007, where he founded the Law and Regulation and the Competition Law diploma courses and has co-authored nine books on Economic Competition, and Regulation topics. In 2015 he was selected as one of the 40 best competition lawyers under 40 years of age in the world by the Global Competition Review and has been recognized as a leader in the practice by several international publications. He is a member of the International Cartel Task Force in the Antitrust Section of the American Bar Association, a columnist for El Financiero and a Non-Governmental Advisor to COFECE.