The Colombian Competition Authority, the Superintendencia de Industria y Comercio - SIC extended the suspension of deadlines for administrative proceedings until the national quarantine order is lifted. Under the new extension, deadlines will continue to be suspended until May 11, 2020, unless the national quarantine period is extended. 

Among a handful of exceptions, deadlines will continue to run for merger control applications where there is no outstanding information, as well as any use of the SIC’s powers to protect fundamental rights (including in connection with data protection) and any matter in connection with the fight against COVID-19.

Simultaneously, the Colombian government used its emergency powers to add, on a temporary basis, a new item to the list of restrictive conducts: failing to make timely payments to small and medium-sized enterprises which are selling goods or services to holders of government contracts for construction of infrastructure will now be subject to enforcement by the SIC, with penalties of up to 100,000 minimum monthly legal wages (c. US$21 million.) The new powers will be in place while the state of Sanitary Emergency declared by the Ministry of Health remains in place. As of today, the Sanitary Emergency will expire on May 30, 2020, but the Ministry of Health has the authority to extend it. 

It is worth noting that the decree of the Colombian Government enacting the new powers contains a major contradiction, in that it claims to simultaneously modify both article 48 of Decree 2153/1992 (unilateral conduct) and article 50 (abuse of dominance) which are separate sets of conducts under Colombian law and may therefore result in the decree facing significant constitutionality challenges.