Colombia's Superintendencia de Industria y Comercio (Superintendence of Industry and Commerce, or SIC) has materially raised its enforcement profile in recent months. The authority has issued substantial financial penalties against companies across multiple sectors, expanded its investigative capacity, and signalled that merger notification compliance and cartel conduct are its immediate priorities for 2025 and beyond. International businesses operating in Colombia – or holding market dominance in sectors under scrutiny – cannot afford to treat this as a distant regulatory development.
Colombia's competition authority, the SIC, has intensified enforcement of competition law across sectors including consumer goods. Financial services. Additionally, logistics, with penalties reaching into the hundreds of billions of Colombian pesos for cartel and market dominance violations. Companies with turnover above established thresholds must comply with merger notification obligations before closing qualifying transactions. Businesses already under investigation face imminent compliance deadlines tied to ongoing proceedings.
This alert summarises the enforcement trends that matter most, identifies the business categories at greatest immediate risk, and sets out the concrete steps international companies should take now.
What has changed: enforcement trends and the regulatory shift
The SIC has historically been an active competition authority, but its recent enforcement cycle represents a qualitative shift. The authority has moved from predominantly reactive investigations – triggered by complaints – toward proactive sector inquiries. It now deploys market studies to identify structural concerns before a formal complaint is filed.
Several key developments define this shift:
- The SIC has issued penalty decisions against participants in alleged cartel arrangements in the health, construction inputs, and logistics sectors.
- The authority has scrutinised companies with suspected market dominance in digital platforms and fast-moving consumer goods.
- Merger notification thresholds have been re-examined, with the SIC providing updated guidance on the asset and revenue tests that trigger mandatory pre-closing notification.
- The SIC's leniency programme has generated a notable increase in self-reporting by cartel participants seeking penalty reductions.
The effective date of the most recent guidance on merger notification thresholds and leniency programme procedures is January 2025. Companies that have not reviewed their compliance position against this updated guidance are already behind.
Colombian competition legislation – specifically the body of law governing restrictive practices, market dominance abuse, and merger control – was not overhauled by statute. Instead, the SIC has issued resolutions and administrative guidance that raise the practical bar for compliance. The distinction matters: these are binding administrative acts, not soft-law recommendations.
Practitioners in Colombia note that the SIC is increasingly willing to pursue simultaneous investigations across multiple entities in the same supply chain. A finding against a distributor can trigger a parallel inquiry into the upstream supplier. International groups should assess group-wide exposure, not only the conduct of the local subsidiary.
For companies concerned about related corporate disputes arising from regulatory findings, our team's work on corporate disputes in Colombia addresses the intersection of regulatory enforcement and shareholder or commercial litigation.
Who is affected: threshold criteria and business categories at risk
The SIC's enforcement priorities fall into three overlapping categories.
Merger notification obligations. Any transaction involving parties whose combined Colombian revenues or assets exceed the thresholds set out in competition legislation triggers mandatory pre-closing notification. The SIC reviews whether the transaction creates or strengthens a dominant position. Foreign-to-foreign deals are captured where the target has Colombian operations or revenues above the threshold. Closing without notification – even where the SIC would ultimately have cleared the transaction – exposes parties to penalty and potential unwinding orders.
Cartel conduct. The SIC's proactive sector inquiries mean that any company coordinating pricing, dividing markets, or exchanging commercially sensitive information with competitors faces elevated detection risk. This applies to both formal agreements and informal understandings reached at trade association meetings. The authority has expressly noted that trade association forums have been used to facilitate anti-competitive coordination in Colombia.
Market dominance abuse. Companies holding a dominant position in their relevant market – which the SIC assesses by reference to market share, barriers to entry, and buyer countervailing power – must avoid exclusionary conduct. Predatory pricing, discriminatory access to infrastructure, and bundling practices are all within scope. Digital platforms operating in Colombia are on notice that the SIC is examining gatekeeper conduct using analytical tools derived from international best practice.
International companies in the following sectors face the highest immediate risk: retail and consumer goods distribution, pharmaceutical supply, logistics and freight forwarding, financial services, and digital services. Companies with supply chains touching these sectors should treat this alert as directly relevant even if they do not operate a Colombian legal entity.
To discuss how these enforcement trends affect your operations in Colombia, contact us at info@ferrazwhitmore.com or visit our dedicated competition law practice for Colombia.
What to do now: immediate actions for international companies
The compliance window is short. The following actions are appropriate immediately for any international company with Colombian operations or a Colombian market position.
- Audit pending and recent transactions. Review all acquisitions, joint ventures, and asset purchases involving Colombian parties or Colombian revenues over the past 24 months. Confirm whether merger notification thresholds were met and whether pre-closing filings were made. Retroactive notification and voluntary disclosure can mitigate penalty exposure, but delay increases risk.
- Review internal communications and commercial agreements. Any pricing discussions with competitors – however informal – should be identified and assessed. Trade association meeting minutes and industry working group outputs warrant legal review. Competition legislation in Colombia does not require a formal written agreement for a cartel finding; a consistent pattern of parallel conduct combined with documentary evidence of contact is sufficient.
- Assess market dominance. If your company holds or may hold a dominant position in a Colombian product or geographic market, commission an internal dominance assessment. Identify all commercial practices that could be characterised as exclusionary. Rebates, exclusivity arrangements, and margin squeeze claims are the most common enforcement targets.
- Evaluate leniency programme eligibility. If internal review uncovers evidence of past anti-competitive conduct, assess eligibility under the SIC's leniency programme. The first company to self-report receives the most significant penalty reduction. Delay in approaching the authority reduces the available benefit and increases the risk that a competitor self-reports first.
- Train commercial teams. Sales, procurement, and business development staff interacting with competitors or operating in sectors under SIC scrutiny should receive targeted competition law training. A single meeting or email exchange can generate the documentary basis for a multi-year investigation.
Engaging a lawyer in Colombia with cross-border competition experience is a necessary first step for any group conducting this review. The SIC's procedures require engagement in Spanish, and its investigative process has specific procedural deadlines that are easy to miss without local counsel. For a tailored strategy on competition compliance in Colombia, reach out to info@ferrazwhitmore.com.
About Ferraz & Whitmore
Ferraz & Whitmore is an international law firm based in Lisbon, advising business clients across 46 jurisdictions. As a law firm in Colombia and across Latin America, our team. led by International Counsel Marco Reyes – provides cross-border legal support on competition law enforcement, merger notification, leniency programme strategy, and regulatory investigations. We combine civil law expertise with international commercial practice to advise multinational groups, investors, and in-house legal teams managing regulatory risk across multiple jurisdictions. Our competition practice covers cartel defence, market dominance analysis, and merger control across both civil law and common law systems. The firm is a member of leading international legal associations focused on cross-border competition and antitrust practice. To discuss how SIC enforcement trends affect your business in Colombia, contact us at info@ferrazwhitmore.com.
Disclaimer: This publication is provided for informational purposes only and does not constitute legal advice. The information herein should not be relied upon as a substitute for professional legal counsel tailored to your specific circumstances. Ferraz & Whitmore assumes no liability for actions taken or not taken based on the contents of this material. For advice regarding your particular situation, please contact info@ferrazwhitmore.com.