Chile′s Constitutional Court has delayed its decision on Chilean airline Pal′s complaint against the merger of the LAN and TAM airlines until the 31 August.
The announcement yesterday, rather than the court ruling as expected on whether it would uphold Pal′s complaint that certain mitigation measures agreed between the airlines and Chile′s national economic prosecutor′s office, the FNE, were unconstitutional.
Lawyers in Chile have criticised Pal′s complaint as ′weak′ and ′groundless′, saying it is aimed at delaying the merger between the country′s national flag carrier LAN and Brazil′s TAM rather than raising legitimate concerns.
If the Constitutional Court upholds Pal′s complaint, it could lead to delays of between two to three months.
The merger, which would create Latin America′s largest airline, is also awaiting a key decision by Chile′s antitrust court, TDLC, after a Chilean consumer rights group lodged a third party complaint claiming the merger would have a negative impact on routes across Latin America. A decision from the court is expected later this month.
In Brazil, the merger moved a step closer earlier this month after the secretary for economic monitoring (SEAE) of the country′s Ministry of Finance gave its "unrestricted" approval of the merger.
That decision came some four months after ANAC, Brazil′s aviation authority, gave the merger a green light, although approval from the country′s antitrust tribunal, CADE, remains pending.
None of the law firms contacted would comment on the announcement.
Counsel to TAM
General counsel - Luiz Claudio Aguiar
US
Clifford Chance LLP
Partners Anthony Oldfield and Sarah Jones and associates Anand Saha and Kristyn Walker
Brazil
Machado, Meyer, Sendacz e Opice Advogados
Partners Antonio Corrêa Meyer, Carlos José Rolim de Mello, Raquel Novais and Fernando Tonnani and associates Fabio Falkenburger and Paula Magalhães
Barbosa Müssnich & Aragão
Partner Barbara Rosenberg and associates José Inácio de Almeida Prado Filho and Rafael Smizd
Chile
Cariola, Diez, Pérez-Cotapos & Cía Ltda
Partners Francisco Illanes and Peter Deutsch
Counsel to TAM′s shareholders
Turci Advogados
Partners Flávia Turci and associates Carlos Fujita and Ana Matsuda
Counsel to LAN
General counsel - Cristián Toro
US
Sullivan & Cromwell LLP
Partners Sergio Galvis, Duncan McCurrach and Juan Rodriguez and associates Carlos Pelaez, Felipe Capella, Rachael Dugan
Brazil
Pinheiro Neto Advogados
Partner Alexandre Bertoldi and associates Vânia Marques Ribeiro Moyano and Roberta Stettinger Bilotti Demange
Chile
Claro y Cía
Partners José Maria Eyzaguirre and Felipe Larraín
Counsel to LAN in Constitutional Court filing
Claro y Cía
Partners José Maria Eyzaguirre, Cristóbal Eyzaguirre and Felipe Larraín
Counsel to Pal
Independent practitioner - Mario Fernández
(Latin Lawyer 25.08.2011)
(Notícia na Íntegra)
