About

Despite only starting its operations in Mexico in 2012, Linio is already Latin America’s largest online store. Marianna Elena Del Río Díaz, legal counsel for Mexico and regional chief compliance officer, has led the legal team there since 2014. The legal function, which is now made up of seven members, has recently achieved a number of internal changes to support the company’s operations. One such example is the creation of new terms and conditions for online sellers and consumers that have been adjusted to cater for each country Linio operates in. Del Río Díaz says of the changes: ‘This new agreement has been successfully accepted by consumers, which has consequently resulted in a rise of sales. All the adjustments to the terms and conditions to sellers and consumers in the region helped our marketplace to become the largest in Latin America’. Furthermore, the team has implemented stricter control over contracts to reduce risk and have tighter control over partners and other issues, such as terminations and settlements. The department’s efforts to create a strict intellectual property supervision has also benefited Linio by reducing the number of claims made against it. In delivering these new policies, the legal department worked closely with business units to ensure the ‘enforcement of compliance through hard corporate policies’ according to Del Río Díaz. In response to the challenge of dealing with imposter websites and organised crime, Del Río Díaz and her team work jointly with authorities and organisations to improve laws that counteract fraud and further enhance consumer rights in the region. The team identifies its work on the launch of a co-branded credit card with a banking institution as one of its greatest achievements to date. The team also provided valuable input for a fund raising round in September 2016, which saw Linio raise $55m from private-equity investors to bolster its financial position and advance growth in the Latin American e-commerce market.