Reflections from the north on 25 years of implementation of competition law and policy in Latin America

Russell Damtoft Until he retired in 2024, Russell Damtoft was the Associate Director of the U.S. FederalTrade Commission’s Office of International Affairs, where he was among other things responsible for the FTC’s cooperation with competition authorities in the Americas, as well as other countries. Previously, he was the Assistant Director of the Chicago Regional Office and a staff attorney in the Bureau of Consumer Protection. He is a graduate of the University of Iowa College of Law (1981) and Grinnell College (1976). He is also an adjunct professor of law at Georgetown University Law School and a member of the Editorial Board of the American Bar Association’s Antitrust Source.

El ex Director Asociado de la Oficina de Asuntos Internacionales de la Comisión Federal de Comercio reflexiona sobre sus 25 años de colaboración con las autoridades de competencia de América Latina, analizando los avances logrados y el aparente consenso en el hemisferio sobre el valor del derecho y política de competencia. Sin embargo, también reconoce que existen obstáculos significativos que amenazan con socavar dicho consenso. Estos obstáculos incluyen la falta de reconocimiento de las consecuencias sociales de una política que necesariamente genera perdedores además de ganadores, los intereses políticos de los monopolistas y la necesidad de considerar la relación de la política de competencia con otras políticas gubernamentales. Finalmente, se analizan algunos ingredientes esenciales para la implementación exitosa de la política de competencia.

“Implementation of competition policy can be politically challenging, as it promises long-term payoff at the cost of short-term uncertainty. Making the promises of a free market come true requires careful implementation, not only of competition law itself but of the constellation of policies and institutions that must be in place for a free market to work. The road to implementation is not always politically intuitive, so the task requires good messaging, a measure of determination, political courage, and, for lack of a better term, faith in markets”.