Cassandra Garrison
3 min read
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By Cassandra Garrison
MEXICO CITY (Reuters) -Mexico's antitrust watchdog is set to rule by next week on whether Google built an illegal monopoly in digital advertising in the country, a decision that could fine the tech giant 8% of its annual Mexican revenue, public documents show.
Although Google does not release detailed revenue results by country, the potential fine could be among the largest ever imposed by Mexico's Federal Economic Competition Commission (Cofece). Cofece and Google declined to comment.
The watchdog expects to make a decision by June 17, according to its own published timeline. Under Mexican law, 8% of annual revenue is the maximum fine for monopolistic practices.
Cofece accuses the company of establishing an effective monopoly in the Mexican digital advertising market. It began its investigation into Google Mexico in 2020 and issued a summons in 2023, beginning the trial phase of the procedure.
Google then had the opportunity to present evidence against the allegations.
A company can apply for an injunction blocking the antitrust ruling until a specialized court decides on whether it should be ratified or not.
Cofece requested Google's financial information from tax authority SAT, a timeline of updates on the case's record of history showed.
While Google parent Alphabet does not include specific revenue numbers for Mexico in its earnings reports, the U.S. tech giant is the largest company to be challenged by Mexico's antitrust regulator.
According to annual results for 2024, the company's revenue for its "other Americas" region, which includes Latin America, was about $20.4 billion.
In 2022, Cofece fined a group of liquefied petroleum gas distributors 2.4 billion Mexican pesos ($126.03 million) for price fixing.
Cofece's database shows that an oral hearing with Google about the case, considered one of the final steps in such cases, took place on May 20.
In 2020, in response to anticompetitive investigations into Google, Lina Ornelas, Director of Public Policy and Government Relations at Google Mexico, said at a company event, "Being big isn't bad. What matters is that you don't take out any competitors with your products, even though yours can be very efficient, and that's why you have more users."
Separately, Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum has clashed with Google, filing a suit against the company over its decision to change the name of the Gulf of Mexico to the "Gulf of America" for U.S. users of Google Maps, after President Donald Trump renamed the body of water. The suit argues Google does not have the "authority" to rename it.
