Mexican ISPs such as Telmex and Izzi must publish a policy to terminate the internet connections of repeat copyright infringers, after Mexico’s Senate approved a reform of the Federal Copyright Law on Tuesday that ties provider liability to that requirement. The amendments passed with roughly two-thirds of the vote, with the opposition voting against, and now head to President Claudia Sheinbaum.
The consequence lands on households, not just accounts. Because the law allows the internet connection itself to be cut off, one person’s piracy accusations could take an entire home offline — a scenario Senator Gabriel Elizondo raised during Tuesday’s debate, warning that families often share a single connection. Opposition lawmakers had proposed requiring a court order before any suspension. That proposal was not adopted.
Why the Government Pushed the Rewrite
The government proposed the changes in May to bring Mexican law into line with the USMCA trade agreement between Mexico, the United States and Canada. The pressure didn’t come only from treaty text. Back in January, the copyright industry coalition IIPA voiced complaints that Mexico’s 2020 reform “did not provide a clear principle of secondary liability for those inducing or promoting copyright infringement.” Then in April, citing the draft amendments, the USTR shifted Mexico down to a lower tier of its piracy watch list.
There’s an irony in the timing. In March, the U.S. Supreme Court wiped out the $1 billion verdict against Cox, ruling that knowing about a subscriber’s piracy and failing to act is not enough to make an ISP liable for contributing to it. Record labels had spent years suing U.S. Internet providers that kept serving subscribers who were repeatedly accused of piracy. Mexico is now legislating in the opposite direction, writing a liability hook into statute just as U.S. courts pulled it back.
What the Safe Harbor Now Demands From Providers
Mexico added DMCA-style safe harbors to its copyright law in 2020, also under USMCA pressure. That protection covered hosting platforms and search engines, which had to terminate repeat infringers’ accounts. Consumer access providers were left out. The new amendments fill that hole: an ISP that doesn’t satisfy its safe harbor conditions can be held responsible for infringements committed by its users when it knowingly contributes to, induces, or causes the infringement — or when it has the ability to control the infringing user and receives a direct financial benefit from it. In either situation, the Mexican Institute of Industrial Property (IMPI) may impose a fine of as much as roughly 4.7 million pesos (~$250,000) on the provider, with the amount varying according to the infringement.
The policy itself must be published permanently on the provider’s website and in its terms of service, and must include a basic way to notify users. Per the Mexican business outlet EL CEO, access providers such as Telmex and Izzi will need such a policy.
The Undefined Term at the Center of the Law
Here’s the gap. The statute doesn’t explicitly define the term repeat infringer, and it doesn’t say how many piracy accusations it takes before a subscriber can be cut off.
Aurora López-Portillo, director of legal services at IP firm ClarkeModet, told EL CEO that each provider has to decide its own threshold. Beyond that, she noted, ISPs ought to verify whether the claims against users are actually substantiated and offer those users an opportunity to reply — steps the law itself doesn’t mandate.
That leaves the practical mechanics entirely to private companies. Opposition senators flagged concerns during the debate, and lost the vote to require judicial oversight.
When It Takes Effect — and What’s Still Unwritten
Once the new repeat infringer rules are published in Mexico’s official gazette, a 180-day countdown begins before they come into force. As of the Senate vote, that publication hadn’t happened yet. So there’s no compliance deadline for Telmex, Izzi, or any other provider to circle on a calendar — and no way yet to know what any of their thresholds will be.
The Chamber of Deputies approved the same text in October, so the decree now goes to President Claudia Sheinbaum. What remains is the gazette publication, and then the period for ISPs to draft policies. The decree lands on the president’s desk with the question of how many piracy accusations it takes before a subscriber can be cut off left unanswered.
