law firm. His main areas of work are civil and administrative
procedures, project finance, corporate and commercial, mergers and
acquistion, energy, telecommunications, and international arbitration.
Cofiec Bldg., 5th Floor
Quito Ecuador
593.2.256.2680 Phone
593.2.256-2628 Fax
marioflor@bustamante.com.ec
www.bustamanteybustamante.com
Cofiec Bldg., 5th Floor
Quito Ecuador
593.2.256.2680 Phone
593.2.256-2628 Fax
brpoveda@bustamante.com.ec
www.bustamanteybustamante.com
law firm. His main areas of work are corporate and comercial law,
competition law, mergers and acquisitions and energy.
derwent a reform process for return to
democracy, ending up in a referendum
approving the Political Constitution of
the Republic. Enacted in the year 1979,
the Ecuadorian Constitution set forth that
the economy's organization and operation
must abide by the principles of efficiency.
Furthermore, the 1979 Constitution pro-
vided that any form of abuse of economic
power, including unions and groups of
corporations purporting to dominate na-
tional markets, eliminate competition or
arbitrarily increase profits, are prohibited
and punishable by law.
In spite of the constitutional advances
made in 1979, the competition law and
policymaking processes in Ecuador have
been sluggish. During the 1980s, the
implementation of a system for competi-
tion rules was virtually nonexistent. In
the 1990s and the first decade of the new
were introduced for market liberation
and deregulation. The liberation process
focused on sectors involving the ex-
ploitation of natural resources and the
provision of public services; nonethe-
less, a comprehensive and complete set
of competition rules applicable to all
sectors of the economy was not provided.
Conversely, the amendments addressed
only certain regulated natural resource
and public service sectors, were dis-
perse and lacked content. Competence
over competition matters was afforded
to a plurality of authorities, which were
vested with limited investigation and
punishing powers.
In 2005, the Andean Community of
Nations issued the Rules for Protecting
and Promoting Free Competition in the
Andean Community (CAN Decision 608).
The community rules introduced the
prohibition of abuse of dominant position
tion of a single authority, and application
to all sectors of the economy. Although
Decision 608 took effect in Ecuador in
July 2005, it was only applied in year
2009, when Executive Decree 1614,
providing for the Rules for Application
of CAN Decision 608, was enacted. This
decree has turned out to be intrinsically
insufficient though, as it bears limitations
proper to the its rank within local legisla-
tion, to the extent that certain significant
aspects, i.e., the power to investigate,
procedures and, particularly, penalties
and sanctioning powers, are subject to
the principle of reserve of law.
In 2008, Ecuador went through a new
reform process where a new Constitu-
tion was drawn up. The Constitution of
October 2008 (i) acknowledges the right
to have access to optimum quality goods
and services and to freely choose them;
(ii) guarantees the right to carry out eco-
nomic activities, the right to have access
to quality goods and public and private
services, provided efficiently, efficaciously
and under fair treatment; (iii) sets as one
of the trade policy's objectives, to deter
anticompetitive practices, namely, in the
private sector, and other practices that
may affect market operations; (iv) places
on the State the obligation to regulate,
control and intervene, when necessary, in
commercial trade and transactions, (...)
to determine sanction mechanisms for
deterring private anticompetitive practices
or abuse of dominant position at the mar-