Article 28 Political Constitution of the United Mexican States

In the United Mexican States are prohibited the monopolies, the monopolistic practices, the state monopolies, the remission of taxes and the exemptions of taxes in the terms and conditions that the laws fix. The same treatment shall be given to prohibitions imposed by way of protection of industry.

Consequently, the law shall punish severely, and the authorities shall pursue with efficacy, all concentration or hoarding in one or a few hands of articles of necessary consumption and that has as object obtaining the rise of prices; all agreement, procedure or combination of the producers, industrialists, merchants or entrepreneurs of services, that in any manner they make, to avoid the free concurrence or the competition among themselves or to oblige the consumers to pay exaggerated prices and, in general, all that constitutes an exclusive undue advantage in favor of one or several determined persons and to the detriment of the public in general or of some social class.

The laws shall fix bases so that maximum prices are indicated to the articles, materials or products that are considered necessary for the national economy or the popular consumption, as well as to impose modalities to the organization of the distribution of those articles, materials or products, in order to avoid that unnecessary or excessive intermediations cause insufficiency in the supply, as well as the rise of prices. The law shall protect the consumers and shall foster their organization for the better care of their interests.

Shall not constitute monopolies the functions that the State exercises in an exclusive manner in the following strategic areas: mail, telegraphs and radiotelegraphy; radioactive minerals, lithium and generation of nuclear energy; the service of Internet that the State provides; the planning and the control of the national electric system, whose objectives shall be to preserve the security and energy self-sufficiency of the Nation and to provide the people with electricity at the lowest possible price, avoiding the profit, in order to guarantee the national security and sovereignty through the public enterprise of the State that is established; as well as the public service of transmission and distribution of electric energy, and the exploration and extraction of petroleum and of the other hydrocarbons, in the terms of the sixth and seventh paragraphs of article 27 of this Constitution, respectively; as well as the activities that the public enterprises of the State carry out and those that expressly the laws issued by the Congress of the Union indicate. The communication via satellite and the railways, both for transport of passengers and of freight, are priority areas for the national development in the terms of article 25 of this Constitution; the State, in exercising in them its stewardship, shall protect the security and the sovereignty of the Nation, and in granting assignments, concessions or permits shall maintain or establish the dominion of the respective means of communication in accordance with the laws on the matter.

The Mexican State retakes the right to utilize the railway ways to provide the service of transport of passengers. For this, the Federal Executive may grant assignments to public enterprises or concessions to private individuals.

The State shall count on the organisms and enterprises that it requires for the effective management of the strategic areas under its charge and in the activities of priority character where, in accordance with the laws, it participates by itself or with the social and private sectors.

The State shall have a central bank that shall be autonomous in the exercise of its functions and in its administration. Its priority objective shall be to procure the stability of the purchasing power of the national currency, strengthening thereby the stewardship of the national development that corresponds to the State. No authority may order the bank to grant financing. The State shall count on a public trust named Mexican Petroleum Fund for Stabilization and Development (Fondo Mexicano del Petróleo para la Estabilización y el Desarrollo), whose Fiduciary Institution shall be the central bank and shall have as object, in the terms that the law establishes, to receive, administer and distribute the revenues derived from the assignments and contracts to which the seventh paragraph of article 27 of this Constitution refers, with the exception of the taxes.

Shall not constitute monopolies the functions that the State exercises in an exclusive manner, through the central bank in the strategic areas of minting of coin and issuance of bills. The central bank, in the terms that the laws establish and with the intervention that corresponds to the competent authorities, shall regulate the exchanges, as well as the intermediation and the financial services, counting on the attributions of authority necessary to carry out said regulation and to provide for its observance. The conduct of the bank shall be in charge of persons whose designation shall be made by the President of the Republic with the approval of the Senate or of the Permanent Commission (Comisión Permanente), as the case may be; they shall perform their charge for periods whose duration and staggering provide for the autonomous exercise of their functions; they may only be removed for grave cause and may not have any other employment, charge or commission, with the exception of those that act in representation of the bank and of those not remunerated in teaching, scientific, cultural or charitable (sic DOF 20-08-1993) associations. The persons in charge of the conduct of the central bank, may be subjects of impeachment proceedings (juicio político) in accordance with the provisions of article 110 of this Constitution.

The Federal Executive Power, through the agency in charge of conducting and supervising the energy policy of the country, shall count on the attributions to carry out the technical and economic regulation; as well as the sanctioning faculty in energy and hydrocarbons matter, in the terms that the law determines.

Shall not constitute monopolies the associations of employees formed to protect their own interests and the associations or cooperative societies of producers so that, in defense of their interests or of the general interest, they sell directly in the foreign markets the national or industrial products that are the principal source of wealth of the region in which they are produced or that are not articles of prime necessity, provided that said associations are under vigilance or protection of the Federal Government or of the states (federal entities), and with prior authorization that for the effect is obtained from the respective Legislatures in each case. The same Legislatures, by themselves or at the proposal of the Executive may repeal, when the public needs so require, the authorizations granted for the formation of the associations in question.

Neither do constitute monopolies the privileges that for a determined time are granted to the authors and artists for the production of their works and those that for the exclusive use of their inventions, are granted to the inventors and improvers of some improvement.

The State, subjecting itself to the laws, may in cases of general interest, grant concession for the provision of public services or the exploitation, use and enjoyment of property of the domain of the Federation, except the exceptions that the same provide. The laws shall fix the modalities and conditions that assure the efficacy of the provision of the services and the social utilization of the property, and shall avoid phenomena of concentration that contravene the public interest.

The subjection to regimes of public service shall adhere to the provisions of the Constitution and may only be carried out by means of law.

May be granted subsidies to priority activities, when they are general, of temporary character and do not substantially affect the finances of the Nation. The State shall supervise their application and shall evaluate the results of this.

The Federal Executive, through the authority in matter of free competition and concurrence shall prevent, investigate and combat the monopolies, the monopolistic practices, the concentrations and other restrictions to the efficient functioning of the markets, in the terms that this Constitution and the laws establish. For such effect, it shall count on the faculties necessary to comply with said object, such as ordering measures in order to eliminate the barriers to the competition and the free concurrence; regulate the access to essential inputs, and order the divestiture of assets, rights, social parts or shares of the economic agents, in the proportions necessary to eliminate anticompetitive effects.

The Federal Executive, through the agency in charge of elaborating and conducting the policies of telecommunications and broadcasting shall guarantee the efficient development of the broadcasting and the telecommunications, in accordance with the provisions in this Constitution and in the terms that the laws fix. For such effect, it shall have under its charge the regulation, promotion and supervision of the use, enjoyment and exploitation of the radioelectric spectrum, the networks and the provision of the services of broadcasting and telecommunications, as well as of the access to active, passive infrastructure and other essential inputs, guaranteeing what is established in articles 6o. and 7o. of this Constitution. The law shall establish the principles, the actions of coordination and shall distribute competences among the authorities of the three levels of government in order to homologate the procedures for the deployment of infrastructure of telecommunications and broadcasting in all the country.

The Federal Executive, through the authority in matter of free competition and concurrence, shall exercise in exclusive form the faculties of economic competition to regulate in asymmetric form the participants in the markets of telecommunications and broadcasting with the object of eliminating efficaciously the barriers to the competition and the free concurrence; it shall impose limits to the national and regional concentration of frequencies, to the granting of concessions and to the cross ownership that controls several media of communication that are concessionaires of broadcasting and telecommunications that serve a same market or zone of geographic coverage, and shall order the divestiture of assets, rights or parts necessary to assure the compliance with these limits, guaranteeing the provisions in articles 6o. and 7o. of this Constitution.

It corresponds to the Federal Executive through the agency in charge of elaborating and conducting the policies of telecommunications and broadcasting, the granting, the revocation, as well as the authorization of assignments or changes of shareholder control, ownership or operation of societies related to concessions in matter of broadcasting and telecommunications. The concessions may be for commercial, public, private and social use that include the community and the indigenous ones, which shall be subject, in accordance with their ends, to the principles established in articles 2o., 3o., 6o. and 7o. of this Constitution. The Federal Executive shall fix the amount of the considerations for the granting of the concessions, as well as for the authorization of services linked to these.

The concessions of the radioelectric spectrum shall be granted by means of public bidding, in order to assure the maximum concurrence, preventing phenomena of concentration that contravene the public interest and assuring the lowest price of the services to the final user; in no case shall the determining factor to define the winner of the bidding be merely economic. The concessions for public and social use shall be without profit ends and shall be granted under the mechanism of direct assignment in accordance with what is provided by the law and in conditions that guarantee the transparency of the procedure. For that effect there shall be a public registry of concessions and a National System of Infrastructure Information (Sistema Nacional de Información de Infraestructura) under the charge of the agency responsible for elaborating and conducting the policies of telecommunications and broadcasting of the Federal Government. The law shall establish an effective scheme of sanctions that indicates as cause of revocation of the title of concession the non-compliance with the resolutions that have remained firm in cases of conducts linked with monopolistic practices. In the revocation of the concessions, the Federal Executive shall exercise, as the case may be, the attributions necessary that guarantee the continuity in the provision of the service.

The Federal Government shall count on the concessions, authorizations and assignments in broadcasting and telecommunications, necessary for the exercise of its functions.

The Federal Executive shall provide in the administrative sphere the provisions of general character to regulate the telecommunications and broadcasting, as well as the matter of economic competition.

The general norms and acts issued in matter of free competition and concurrence, as well as in matter of telecommunications and broadcasting, in compliance with the faculties attributed in the fifteenth to the nineteenth paragraphs of this article, or the omissions in which they incur, may be challenged only by means of the indirect amparo proceeding and shall not be object of suspension. Only in the cases in which fines are imposed or the divestiture of assets, rights, social parts or shares, these shall be executed until the proceeding that, as the case may be, is promoted is resolved. When dealing with resolutions emanating from a procedure followed in form of proceeding only the one that puts an end to the same may be challenged for violations committed in the resolution or during the procedure; the general norms applied during the procedure may only be claimed in the amparo promoted against the referred resolution. The amparo proceedings shall be substantiated by judges and courts specialized in the terms of article 94 of this Constitution. In no case shall ordinary or constitutional remedies against intra-procedural acts be admitted.