The CNMC receives new complaints about the conditions of ICO loans due to the covid

The National Commission of Markets and Competition (CNMC) has continued to receive complaints and inquiries related to the granting of ICO Covid loans, so it will remain especially vigilant in the current context of economic and social crisis and the possible granting of new loans of this nature or the extension of existing ones.

In this sense, it will continue to make the pertinent information requirements to financial entities that may be affected by such practices, in order to determine if their actions are compatible with the competition rules.

Thus, the CNMC continues the investigations that began during the months of confinement thanks to the launch of the complaints mailbox [email protected] to centralize all complaints and inquiries from citizens and companies regarding the application of the regulations of competition in the context of the pandemic.

After more than six months of operation of the ‘Covid mailbox’, the financial sector has been the one that has generated the most inquiries and complaints about possible infractions of competition regulations. In this sense, as a result of the first inquiries received and various news published in the media, the CNMC initiated preliminary proceedings and made a series of information requests to various financial entities.

After analyzing the information collected, the CNMC has detected the existence of a series of actions that could violate competition regulations. The Commission is currently analyzing the linkage of cross products when marketing ICO Covid loans (among others, insurance, alarm services or the purchase of televisions), the use of such credits as a mechanism to restructure pre-existing financial products, as well as the payment of initial expenses by the beneficiaries of the credits, prior to the disbursement of the funds corresponding to the credits granted.

For all these reasons, the CNMC investigates whether said actions could constitute a unfair behavior that, by distorting free competition, affects the public interest in a context of crisis derived from Covid-19 and, therefore, constitutes an infringement of Law 15/2007, of July 3, on the Defense of Competition.