On January 12, 2021, the Reform Decree was published in the Official Gazette of the Federation (“DOF”), which adds a section IV to subsection A) and section IV of item B) of Article 298 of the Federal Telecommunications and Broadcasting Law (the “Reform Decree”).
By virtue of the Reform Decree, the sanction for carrying out violations to the law, regulations, administrative provisions, fundamental technical plans and other provisions issued by the Federal Telecommunications Institute, as well as to the concessions or authorizations that are not expressly contemplated in Chapter II of the Federal Telecommunications and Broadcasting Law (the “General Violations”), which was provided for in Section IV of subsection B) of Article 298 of the Federal Telecommunications and Broadcasting Law (the “Law”) was repealed and included, with exactly the same text, in Section IV of subsection A of the aforementioned Article 298. Consequently, the fine for non-compliance with the General Violations decreased from 1% to 3% to 0.01% to 0.75% of the concessionaire’s or licensee’s income.
It is important to mention that Section IV of paragraph B) of Article 298 of the Law that is repealed by virtue of the Reform Decree, was declared unconstitutional by judgment of the Supreme Court of Justice of the Nation in the normative portion of 1%, considering that such provision violates Article 22 of the Political Constitution of the United Mexican States, because it is an excessive sanction that disregards the due relationship between the conduct, the consequences produced and the applicable sanction, in addition to the fact that the minimum fine is higher than the minimum fine applicable for other infractions. This resulted in the jurisprudence 2ª/J. 167/2017 (10ª).
