Mexico Tries To Rein In The World's Richest Man, Billionaire Carlos Slim

 

 

Regulators in Mexico are struggling to rein in what they say are grave and repeat monopolistic practices by the richest man in the world. Carlos Slim Helu, the owner of Mexico's telephone company, just received another multimillion-dollar fine from the country's fledgling anti-corruption regulatory agency. Slim has successfully appealed or fought previous fines. But lawmakers say they are determined to make him play fairly and by the rules.

He runs Mexico's largest cell phone company. According to the Mexican government, he's also guilty of grave and repeated anti-trust practices. Mexico's fledgling regulatory agency has one again slapped Slim with a multi-million dollar fine. He successfully appealed or fought the previous fines, but some tenacious Mexican lawmakers say they are determined to make him play by the rules.
If you make a phone call in Mexico, most likely Carlos Slim gets a cut. Slim controls 80 percent of all landlines in Mexico and 70 percent of cell phone service. He also controls the infrastructure, which competitors must pay a fee to use. Until recently, Slim and his companies, TELMEX and America Movil, could pretty much set those rates. Eduardo Perez Motta, however, has gotten in his way lately. Perez Motta heads the country's small anti-trust commission known as Cofeco. He's fined Slim's companies three times in the last year, at a cost of more than $1 billion. Perez says the most recent fine, $52 million, was for cutting a competitor's access to TELMEX's network for more than 10 months.
There is no strong culture of competition in Nigeria. The Federal Government is even seen to aid some companies who thrive on monopolies.

Do you think the Federal Government of Nigeria should check the operations of these companies?
Can our law makers really do anything about this?