Carlos Mena Labarthe

Practice Areas

Antitrust, Investigations and Compliance.

Career

Mr. Mena advises and represents clients in antitrust/competition and regulation matters.

After 10 years in various positions at the Federal Antitrust Commission (COFECE), he currently advises clients regarding all aspects of economic competition in Mexico. Mr. Mena also has experience in coordinating proceedings in different jurisdictions, especially in Latin America.

Prior to joining the Firm in July 2017, Mr. Mena worked for more than ten years at the competition authority, where apart from being the first head of the Investigative Authority, he was General Director of Investigations of Cartels and Head of the Planning, Public Relations and International Affairs Unit. He worked in the United States Federal Trade Commission and was the representative of Mexico in various international forums, including the OECD, the International Competition Network.

In these tasks he developed the investigation procedures, including the surprise search processes, 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 eight books on Economic Competition, Regulation and Energy.

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.

Professional Memberships

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.