The Superintendence of Industry and Commerce (SIC) of Colombia issued Resolution 2103 of 2021, which established fees that must be paid for merger control procedures. This was in accordance with article 152 of Law 2010 of 2019, which authorized the SIC to establish a fee for these procedures.
The fees are the following:
- The fee applicable for notification procedures in accordance with subsection 5, article 9 of Law 1340 of 2009 is COP$2.620.000, approximately USD$740.
- The fee applicable for preliminary authorization (Phase 1) in accordance with subsection 4, article 10 of Law 1340 of 2009 is COP$14.200.000, approximately USD$4,000.
- In relation to the preliminary authorization (Phase 2):
- If the individual or joint operational income or assets in the previous tax year was estimated to be equal or three times the value of the threshold established in numerals 1 and 2 of article 9 of Law 1340 of 2009, the corresponding fee would be COP$37.380.000, approximately USD$10.500.
- If the individual or joint operational income or assets in the previous tax year was estimated to be equal or two times the value of the threshold established in numerals 1 and 2 of article 9 of Law 1340 of 2009, the corresponding fee would be COP$31.770.000, approximately USD$9.000.
- If the individual or joint operational income or assets in the previous tax year was estimated to be equal or higher than the value of the threshold established in numerals 1 and 2 of article 9 of Law 1340 of 2009, the corresponding fee would be COP$26.160.000, approximately USD$7.400.
The economic threshold, established in numerals 1 and 2 of article 9 of Law 1340 of 2009, for the current year corresponds to 60.000 Colombian minimum legal monthly wages.
The SIC has established these fees due to the fact that the resources used in the preliminary merger control imply a high cost for the public entity. Paying fees for merger operations is a well-known practice that has been applied previously in countries like Germany, New Zealand, the United States and the United Kingdom.
