Mexico: Bus lines colluded for 20 years to keep fares high

MEXICO CITY (AP) — Regulators in Mexico have slapped fines totaling about $60 million on most of the country’s largest passenger bus lines, saying they colluded among themselves for 20 years to keep fares artificially high. The country’s anti-monopoly commission said Tuesday that the price-fixing may have cost passengers about $170 million in excess ticket costs. The Federal Commission on Economic Competition said the fines were levied against 18 bus companies and 31 individuals associated with them. The commission said that between 2000 and 2020, the companies conspired to charge equally high fares, rather than compete among themselves to charge less.