On April 16, 2021, the Mexican Executive Branch published in the Official Federal Gazette the DECREE amending various provisions of the Federal Telecommunications and Broadcasting Act (the “Decree”), charging the Federal Telecommunications Institute (Instituto Federal de Telecomunicaciones) (“IFT”) with incorporating, into its current Public Telecommunications Registry, a new National Registry of Mobile Phone Users (the “National Registry”).

We previously informed you of the approval of the reform bill to regulate subcontracting in the Chamber of Deputies. Following up on this, we are informing you that today it was approved in the Chamber of Senators. This means that the reform has been fully approved, and that it will enter into force with its publication in the Official Federal Gazette (DOF), probably May 1 or before.

Yesterday the Chamber of Deputies announced the approval opinion of the reform bill to regulate subcontracting, which bill was presented at the end of last year by the Federal Executive Branch. The laws that will be affected by the reform are the Federal Labor Act, the Social Security Act, the National Workers Housing Fund Institute Act, the Federal Tax Code, the Income Tax Act (hereinafter, IT) and the Value Added Tax Act (hereinafter, VAT).

On April 8, 2021, the Mexican Federal Economic Competition Commission (the “Commission”) issued the amended Concentration Notification Guidelines (the “Guidelines”)1, which include several topics that were not previously addressed. The purpose of the amendments is to provide more certainty to economic agents on how the Commission analyzes concentrations. Among the most relevant amendments included in the Guidelines are the following:

Today, the president of the Mexican Republic, together with the Ministry of Labor and Social Welfare and representatives of the Legislative Branch, announced an agreement with the principal representatives of the business and worker sector with respect to the Bill reforming subcontracting, which was presented at the end of last year.

On March 26, 2021, the Federal Executive Branch sent to the Deputies Chamber a “Bill with draft Decree amending the Hydrocarbons Act”.

As a follow-up to our publication released on February 5, 20211 , recently various acts have been published in the Federal Official Gazette (“DOF”) with a significant impact on the Mexican electricity industry, specifically, (i) the Decree amending provisions of the Electricity Industry Law (“LIE Reform Decree”) and (ii) the Directive Withdrawing the Reliability Policy issued by the Federal Ministry of Energy (“SENER”) in May, 2020 (the “Reliability Policy Withdrawal Directive“).

Yesterday March 10, 2021 the plenary of the Chamber of Deputies concluded the discussion of the Federal Law for the Regulation of Cannabis as part of the process of its legislative approval. Although the chamber approved many of the provisions previously discussed and approved in the Senate, it also included certain important changes that will have to return to the Senate for their discussion and possible approval.

Latin Lawyer has recorded a 38% increase in end-of-year promotions to partner level al Latin America law firms.

Claus Von Wobeser, founding partner, noted that despite the difficulty of 2020, the firm successfully navigated the pandemic by preparing for crisis scenarios. "Our business model has demonstrated resilience. The appointment of new partners and advisors is a testament to the success of our model and will serve to further consolidate our position as a fully client-focused firm," he said.