{"id":102425,"date":"2025-06-09T17:55:22","date_gmt":"2025-06-09T21:55:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.fne.gob.cl\/?p=102425"},"modified":"2025-06-09T17:57:59","modified_gmt":"2025-06-09T21:57:59","slug":"tdlc-condena-a-banco-de-chile-y-consorcio-con-multas-por-4-950-millones-en-nueva-sentencia-por-interlocking","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.fne.gob.cl\/en\/tdlc-condena-a-banco-de-chile-y-consorcio-con-multas-por-4-950-millones-en-nueva-sentencia-por-interlocking\/","title":{"rendered":"Competition Tribunal fines Banco de Chile and Consorcio over USD 5 million in new interlocking ruling"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>On June 6<sup>th<\/sup>, Chile\u2019s Competition Tribunal (TDLC) issued its decision imposing fines on Banco de Chile and Consorcio for the simultaneous participation of Hern\u00e1n B\u00fcchi Buc as a director and relevant executive in both competing firms. The ruling stems from a complaint filed by the National Economic Prosecutor\u2019s Office (FNE) in December 2021.<\/p>\n<p>In its ruling, the TDLC stated that the prohibition on interlocking \u201c<em>seeks to prevent the risk of information exchange between competitors or the elimination of the uncertainty inherent in a competitive market, which may arise when the same individual simultaneously holds key positions in competing firms<\/em>.\u201d The TDLC imposed fines totaling USD 3.5 million on Banco de Chile and USD 1.7 million on Consorcio.<\/p>\n<p>The TDLC found that B\u00fcchi simultaneously served as a member of the board and\/or as a relevant executive at Banco de Chile, Consorcio, and Falabella \u2212firms that compete in the provision of banking and insurance products and services (Banco de Chile, Consorcio, and Falabella), as well as in securities brokerage services (Banco de Chile and Consorcio).<\/p>\n<p>The FNE\u2019s complaint originated from an ex-officio investigation conducted by its Compliance Enforcement Division using technological tools designed to detect links between competitors through ownership structures or shared individuals.<\/p>\n<p>The same investigation led to another complaint filed in December 2021 by the FNE against Juan Hurtado Vicu\u00f1a, Consorcio, and Larra\u00edn Vial, also for interlocking. That case was ruled by the TDLC in April 2025, imposing fines exceeding USD 2.6 Million. The TDLC, confirming the scope of such decision, held that interlocking can occur through parent companies of firms operating in the same market. The ruling affirmed that both individuals who engaged in the prohibited conduct and the competing companies involved are liable for the infringement.<\/p>\n<p>National Economic Prosecutor Jorge Grunberg stated that \u201c<em>this ruling, along with the one issued in April, sends a clear message to the market regarding the seriousness of individuals simultaneously holding positions as directors or relevant executives in competing firms, including cases involving parent companies of operational subsidiaries in a market. Enforcement of the interlocking prohibition is a priority for the FNE to prevent the flow of sensitive information between competitors and to avoid concerted practices or collusive agreements<\/em>\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>The Prosecutor also emphasized the TDLC\u2019s confirmation that the interlocking between competitors\u2019 prohibition is absolute and does not require evidence of anticompetitive effects, and that both the individual and companies involved are liable for this infringement.<\/p>\n<p>Initially, the FNE also accused Falabella and B\u00fcchi, but both parties ended the proceedings after reaching settlement agreements with the FNE, which were approved by the TDLC. In these agreements, Falabella and B\u00fcchi acknowledged the factual basis of the complaint and committed to B\u00fcchi\u2019s resignation from Falabella\u2019s board. Moreover, Falabella paid over USD 1.5 Million, while B\u00fcchi agreed to pay over USD 190,000 to the Chilean treasury \u2014the highest amount ever paid by an individual in Chile regarding a settlement or sanction imposed by the TDLC.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.fne.gob.cl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/Sentencia_N%C2%B0_203-2025-FIRMADA-Interlocking.pdf\">See TDLC Judgment.<\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.fne.gob.cl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/Requerimiento-al-TDLC-HBB.pdf\">See FNE Complaint.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>On June 6th, Chile\u2019s Competition Tribunal (TDLC) issued its decision imposing fines on Banco de Chile and Consorcio for the simultaneous participation of Hern\u00e1n B\u00fcchi Buc as a director and relevant executive in both competing firms. The ruling stems from a complaint filed by the National Economic Prosecutor\u2019s Office (FNE) in December 2021. In its [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":87994,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[315],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-102425","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-noticias-en"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fne.gob.cl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/102425"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fne.gob.cl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fne.gob.cl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fne.gob.cl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fne.gob.cl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=102425"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.fne.gob.cl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/102425\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":102427,"href":"https:\/\/www.fne.gob.cl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/102425\/revisions\/102427"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fne.gob.cl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/87994"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fne.gob.cl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=102425"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fne.gob.cl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=102425"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fne.gob.cl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=102425"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}