Casinos and nightclubs attribute a drop of between 20% and 25% in the influx of customers due to the measure.
Although for years the places that did not have smoking areas have asked their clients to smoke outside the premises, Helking Aguilar Cárdenas, president of the Mexican Association of Bars, Discos and Nightclubs (Ambadic), comments that now people must smoke at least 10 meters away from the entrances to bars and clubs.
“People are now looking for establishments where the norm is not complied with and they let them smoke,” says Aguilar Cárdenas, who assures that the visits of inspectors who urge compliance with the new rules have intensified.
anti-competitive practices
Luis Manuel Rodríguez Rivero, partner of the Ledesma & Rodríguez Rivero law firm, declares that the measure has generated imbalances in terms of competition, as only some businesses obtain suspensions to the measure, as part of an amparo trial.
The also specialist in Constitutional Law, Amparo Trial and Economic Competition, comments that in Mexico City, only five of the 17 district courts grant suspensions to the regulations, which means that the restaurants that did receive suspensions have an advantage over to those who failed to advance with the request for amparo.
“The measure comes to impose barriers to free competition and free competition, but the way in which the judges are resolving is further distorting the market,” he says. “The establishment that obtains a suspension has an advantage over its neighbor, because there are cases in which the establishments are together, but only one can offer the food and beverage service with spaces for smokers”, explains the lawyer, who handles the legal processes of restaurants, casinos and hotel chains.
Given the refusals to suspend the law, the lawyer declares that restaurants can resort to a complaint, which is presented before the collegiate courts, where this discrepancy is maintained, according to the lawyer.