Competition authorities in Canada, Mexico and Austria are emerging as leaders in applying gender principles to competition enforcement. MLex examined how they are implementing the OECD’s 2023 Gender-Inclusive Competition Toolkit, showing that gender analysis is a practical economic tool for understanding market behavior and consumer harm. Mexican enforcers are prioritizing sectors such as food, health, education, care and public transport, which they see as crucial to women’s participation in the labor market. Austria is closely monitoring hygiene products, while Canada is increasingly factoring gender considerations into market definition.
National competition authorities in Canada, Mexico and Austria are among the most advanced in applying gender principles to competition. At Canada’s request, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development in 2023 released a Gender-Inclusive Competition Toolkit, offering guidance on how authorities can assess market effects beyond traditional assumptions.The work of the national authorities and the OECD shows that gender analysis is not ideological, but a practical economic tool to better understand market behavior and consumer harm. Amid the broader anti-“woke” backlash, it offers a constructive model that other authorities could follow (see here).
MLex spoke with officials from the three authorities about how the approach is being used in practice, and where it could lead next.
— Use of gender lens even before the OECD Toolkit —
While none of the three authorities has yet applied the OECD toolkit per se since its launch, all have been preparing to do so, and both Mexico and Canada point to earlier enforcement actions that addressed gender-related harm in practice.
In its first competition case addressing labor markets, Mexico’s competition authority sanctioned two collusive agreements in the soccer labor market, including a salary cap on female players, following the launch of the women’s league in 2016.
Karina Alejandra Flores Martínez, Deputy Director General at the Cartels Division of Mexico’s competition authority, told MLex the probe was not launched with a gender focus. That element emerged during dawn raids, when the official found a folder detailing the female players’ salary cap.
In 2017, the regulator opened a probe that led to fines against producers of baby diapers, feminine hygiene and incontinence products, for colluding on wholesale prices.
In 2022, the Competition Bureau Canada used demographic data in its review of the Rogers-Shaw merger, finding potential price rises would disproportionately affect lower-income citizens.
Georgia Simone Fakiolas, spokesperson for the bureau, said that while the analysis was not broken down by gender, women are more likely to be affected because they “continue to earn less than men.”
— Impact of female representation and training —
A prerequisite for applying gender lenses in competition cases is having staff who are aware and able to use them, authorities say.
Sarah Fürlinger, Head of Unit Information and Publications at the Austrian competition authority, said the country began with internal discussions ahead of the toolkit, introducing operational changes such as deploying “a mixed team” on dawn raids, appointing two gender-equality officers, and running training to “raise awareness of gender issues.”
She said the authority has created a cartel screening unit to gather data, which can also collect gender-related data when case-relevant. Women now represent 53 percent of management and 48 percent of staff overall.
A Women in Competition Law conference will take place in Vienna on Jan. 26, with panels mainly led by women and aimed at raising the visibility of female experts, while encouraging inclusive participation from both women and men.
Officials at the CNA, the Mexican authority, pointed out that it recognizes the need to apply a gender perspective across all procedures and forthcoming gender-based prioritization.
Flores Martínez said greater female representation — even before the OECD toolkit — has reshaped enforcement at Mexico’s competition authority, which was once “100 percent managed for and by men.” Staff training now focuses on pre-detection stages of cartel enforcement, combining internal promotion with gender-sensitive surveys and market analysis.
Mariana Carrillo Ortega, the CNA's General Director of Planning and Economic Impact Evaluation, said that its unit is expanding surveys to assess the impact of past antitrust decisions, as suggested by the OECD guidelines. The authority introduced anonymized recruitment to reduce bias, producing a roughly 50-50 gender balance in senior and operational management, which allows decision makers to “see things in a different way.”
— Gender perspective in future cases —
Authorities are working to incorporate a gender perspective into future enforcement where relevant, as Fürlinger confirmed for Austria.
She pointed to Austria’s decision to abolish VAT on menstrual hygiene products and contraceptives from Jan. 1 this year, noting that the competition authority can open a sector inquiry if tax cuts aren’t passed on to consumers.
Mexican officials noted that women’s market participation is economically relevant beyond equality considerations, citing International Labour Organization data which show that in Latin America, women make up more than half of services-sector employment and perform 75 percent of unpaid domestic work, leaving them more exposed to anticompetitive harm in essential goods sectors.
Carrillo Ortega said priority sectors include food and non-alcoholic drinks, health and medicines, education and care, and public transportation.
She added that limited transport flexibility can push women out of work, as sudden caregiving duties require reliable connections to work, while both Carrillo Ortega and Flores Martínez said rising costs in care and education markets mean women are often “the first ones losing job opportunities.”
Fakiolas of the Canadian authority said that gender can be relevant where differences in shopping and switching behavior inform geographic or product market definition, using OECD-developed frameworks to assess when demographic data matter.
She pointed to Canada’s 2022 grocery study and a 2024 airline market study, which found that competition affects consumers differently by gender, age, income and location — with rural, remote and indigenous communities facing fewer options.
Much of this work is also driven by exchanges of best practices. Competition authorities collaborate internationally through formal channels such as the OECD and the International Competition Network, as well as bilateral and informal exchanges, including personal engagement — such as the pro bono initiative Women@Competition.
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