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Carlos Slim fined $ 1bln

18 April 2011 12:46 (UTC +04:00)

Baku - APA-Economics. American telephone operator controlled by billionaire Carlos Slim, confirmed at the weekend that its Mexican subsidiary has been fined $1bn for â€œmonopolistic practicesâ€, Financial Times reported.

The 12bn peso fine, relating to the area of completing calls to mobile networks, is the largest ever handed out by Mexicoâ€™s Federal Competition Commission (CFC), the antitrust body. It was the result of a four-year investigation into Telcel, AmÃ©rica MÃ³vilâ€™s Mexican mobile phone operator.

Telcel has more than 70 per cent of Mexicoâ€™s mobile telephone market, and Mr Slim, who Forbes magazine recently named the worldâ€™s richest individual with a record personal fortune of $74bn, controls the company through his shareholding in AmÃ©rica MÃ³vil.

In a statement to the Mexican Stock Exchange (BMV), AmÃ©rica MÃ³vil said it would contest the fine, and it was â€œanalysing the reach, basis and motivation of said resolution with the aim of using each and every one of the defence measures at its disposalâ€.