Costa Rica has developed its own competition law and enforcement regime. The economy in Costa Rica is characterized by the existence of important public service monopolies that operate in the telecom, energy, oil and gas sectors.

In the telecom sector, for instance, the only permitted operator of telecommunications services is the Costa Rican Energy Institute (ICE). Arguably, this has resulted in a distortion of prices, which are quite high according to international standards. ICE also operates in the electricity sector, where it has a monopoly in the transmission of electric current. Even though ICE can face competition in the generation of current (rivals are allowed to have a total market share of no more than 30% according to a law passed in 1995), competitors must sell their power to ICE's distribution arm. Naturally, the vertically integrated nature of ICE's operation in the energy sector has raised concerns about abuse of market power.

Although COPROCOM is relatively well established (by the standards of the Central American sub-region), it still faces various challenges:

• First, despite its enforcement record, the activities of COPROCOM are not widely known or supported in Costa Rican society. COPROCOM has to enhance its profile and, in particular, its pro-consumer activities among political leaders, the media, and in the universities.
• Second, COPROCOM has no right to review mergers and acquisitions, which is a serious omission to its legal mandate and compromises its ability to fight the exercise of market power.
• Third, to date insufficient resources have forced COPROCOM to be selective in the choice of sectors to investigate, necessarily leaving other sectors unexamined.
• Fourth, conservative judicial rulings that limit the ability of state agencies to influence the terms upon which they affect commercial freedom are a constraint. In addition, promoting enhanced competition in those sectors where publicly owned firms operate is proving to be difficult. It is worth noting that public services, legal monopolies and municipal activities are currently exempt from the national competition law.

Therefore, the national report on Costa Rica on needs and priorities in the area of competition policy (prepared during phase I) identified a number of potential anti-competitive practices associated with certain publicly-owned monopolies. It was argued that difficulties in tackling the latter have also frustrated the spread of a competition culture in Costa Rica.

In recent years. COPROCOM has received support from agencies or ministries in Mexico, Canada and Spain, as well as from ECLAC, in the form of seminars and internships. However, this support has been very sporadic, and COPROCOM still faces the need to develop its capacities to ensure wider implementation of the law.