Main Developments in Competition Law and Policy 2025 – Peru
Peruvian competition law and policy proved relatively quiet in 2025, especially compared with the turbulence of recent years. The calm cut both ways. On the positive side, the year brought institutional stability. Leadership at the National Institute for the Defense of Competition and the Protection of Intellectual Property (INDECOPI) remained unchanged, and no publicly visible threats to the agency’s independence emerged. In a country marked by persistent political instability—and in a region where competition authorities often face political pressure—such continuity should not be taken for granted.
The downside was limited enforcement. The agency brought relatively few anticompetitive-conduct cases, and both cartel and abuse-of-dominance investigations moved slowly. Resource allocation likely explains part of the shift. Merger control, unlike conduct enforcement, runs on strict statutory deadlines and requires prompt decisions to avoid chilling investment. INDECOPI appears to have prioritized those proceedings. The Commission for the Defense of Free Competition (the “Commission”) handled merger review in a timely and technically sound manner throughout the year.
The year also revived a recurring institutional debate. Congress again considered a constitutional reform that would grant INDECOPI autonomous constitutional status. The proposal failed to secure the qualified majority required for constitutional amendment, meaning adoption would now require a referendum—a difficult path for a technical institutional reform. If approved, the change could strengthen the agency’s institutional, technical, and budgetary autonomy. Greater budgetary independence, in particular, may prove necessary if the authority is to expand its capacity to pursue complex anticompetitive conduct, especially cartel cases.
Meanwhile, the Commission continued to rely on soft-law instruments. It published market studies and guidelines aimed at competition advocacy and at providing greater legal certainty to market participants.