The health crisis is putting pressure on Mexican law aiming at addressing impediments to perform existing contracts. Mexican law endorses the principle of pacta sunt servanda, whereby contracts must be followed irrespective of any change in circumstances affecting their performance. However, Mexican regulatory agencies and important private stakeholders have issued different directives and guidelines that would allow the postponement or modification of some current contractual terms. Similarly, some rules of exception exist, under Mexican contract law, that may release one party from liability due to impediments to perform under doctrines of force majeure, fortuitous event or hardship.

This paper examines the impact that the pandemic of Covid-19 is having on Mexican contract law in three levels: business to business (B2B), consumer to consumer (C2C) and business to consumer (B2C) transactions. Section II of this report will focus on new regulations enacted, particularly from some administrative agencies, as well as measures taken, in particular by banks and financial institutions, to deal with the circumstances brought by Covid-19 and their possible impact on current contracts1 . And finally, section III will analyze whether Mexican contract law, in its different statutes and case law, could be applied to deal with those new circumstances.