The Comisión Nacional de los Mercados y la Competencia (English: National Commission on Markets and Competition), abbreviated as CNMC, is a Spanish independent

competition regulator A competition regulator is the institution that oversees the functioning of the markets. And the Law in which it takes cognizance of situations having any type of impediments and distortions on the markets and correct them is the competition law ...

responsible for enforcing

competition law Competition law is the field of law that promotes or seeks to maintain market competition by regulating anti-competitive conduct by companies. Competition law is implemented through public and private enforcement. It is also known as antitrust l ...

. It was established by virtue of the Spanish Competition Act (Ley de Defensa de la Competencia or LDC, the competition defence act, of 3 July 2007). It was preceded by the Tribunal de Defensa de la Competencia (Competition Defense Court) until 1 September 2007.

Structure

President * Luis Berenguer Fuster (until September 2011) * Joaquín García Bernaldo de Quirós (2011- ) Members of the Council * Pilar Sánchez Núñez * Julio Costas Comesaña * Jesús González López * Inmaculada Gutiérrez Carrizo * Luis Díez Martín Directors for Investigations * Carlos Pascual (until September 2008) * Clara Guzmán Zapater (2008-)

Notable cases

In 2021, CNMC fined eight companies including

Siemens Siemens AG ( ) is a German multinational conglomerate corporation and the largest industrial manufacturing company in Europe headquartered in Munich with branch offices abroad. The principal divisions of the corporation are ''Industry'', '' ...

Nokia Nokia Corporation (natively Nokia Oyj, referred to as Nokia) is a Finnish multinational corporation, multinational telecommunications industry, telecommunications, technology company, information technology, and consumer electronics corporatio ...

and

ACS Group ACS, Actividades de Construcción y Servicios, S.A. () is a Spanish company dedicated to civil and engineering construction, all types services and telecommunications. It is one of the leading construction companies in the world, with projects i ...

a combined 127.3 million euros ($148 million) for allegedly rigging public contracts valued at 4.1 billion euros for rail-signalling systems between 2002 and 2017. In 2022, CNMC fined six leading construction firms – Dragados (part of

Fomento de Construcciones y Contratas Fomento de Construcciones y Contratas, S.A. (), or FCC, is a Spanish construction company based in Barcelona. Until November 2014, over 50 percent of the shares were owned by a company controlled by the daughter of its founder, Esther Koplo ...

Ferrovial Ferrovial, S.A. (), previously Grupo Ferrovial, is a Spanish multinational company involved in the design, construction, financing, operation (DBFO) and maintenance of transport infrastructure and urban services. It is a publicly traded company ...

Acciona Acciona, S.A. () is a Spanish multinational conglomerate dedicated to the development and management of infrastructure (construction, water, industrial and services) and renewable energy. The company, via subsidiary Acciona Energy, produces 21 te ...

Obrascón Huarte Lain Obrascón Huarte Lain, S.A. (); branded as OHLA Progress Enablers since July 2021, is a Spanish multinational construction and civil engineering company. The company is involved in infrastructure and commercial property construction, homebuilding ...

, and

Sacyr SACYR S.A. () is a Spanish infrastructure operator and developer company based in Madrid. History The company was founded in 1986 as Sociedad Anónima Caminos y Regadíos and was renamed Sacyr in 1991. The company received their first concession ...

– a total of 204 million euros ($208 million) for colluding between 1992 and 2017 in submitting bids for public projects, such as roads and airports. Their collusion was considered socially damaging as they affected thousands of construction bids published by public authorities in Spain, leading to fewer and lower quality bids and putting competing companies at an disadvantage. In response to the 2021–2022 global energy crisis, CNMC lowered the financial burden on around 300 smaller Spanish electricity traders and direct electricity consumers when depositing collateral payments in an attempt to help them stay afloat.Jesús Aged (26 September 2022)
Spanish competition watchdog moves to keep electricity traders afloat
''

Reuters Reuters ( ) is a news agency owned by Thomson Reuters Corporation. It employs around 2,500 journalists and 600 photojournalists in about 200 locations worldwide. Reuters is one of the largest news agencies in the world. The agency was estab ...

''.

References

Competition regulators Consumer organisations in Spain Regulation in Spain {{Spain-org-stub

Structure

Notable cases

See also

References