Anticompetitive conduct enforcement in Brazil in 2025 and the outlook for 2026

In 2025, the Tribunal at the Brazilian Antitrust Authority (CADE) showed a slight uptick in enforcement against anticompetitive conduct, ruling on 24 administrative proceedings – up from 21 in 2024 and 17 in 2023. However, total fines declined compared to 2024, remaining at a much lower level than in 2021 and 2022:

Source: CADE em Números and Anuário de CADE

The year was notable for the high number of settlement agreements approved by CADE’s Tribunal – the highest in the past five years, representing a more than 12-fold increase relative to 2024. This resulted in the highest settlement payments collected in the past three years, second only to 2022:

Source: CADE em Números and Anuário de CADE

Most of the administrative proceedings CADE’s Tribunal ruled on in 2025 involved cartels or uniform commercial practices. Looking ahead to 2026, expectations point to a continued high volume of cases decided on and ongoing reliance on settlement agreements as a key instrument for resolving investigations.

Against this backdrop, CADE’s General Superintendence (GS) opened 90 investigations in 2025, most of which related to unilateral conduct (50), followed by cartels (27) and uniform conduct (13) – reflecting CADE’s significant interest in pursuing abuse-of-dominance cases.

In regard to unilateral conduct, interim measures continued to attract significant attention. The GS granted several requests for interim measures in 2025 and early 2026 that were later reviewed by CADE’s Tribunal and the Brazilian courts. Notable examples include:

• Interim measures in the Soy Moratorium (Moratório de Soja) case;
• Interim measures in the healthcare sector imposed on the Cardiovascular Physicians Society of Maranhão (Sociedade de Médicos Cardiovasculares do Maranhão), the Federal Dentistry Council (Conselho Federal de Odontologia) and 24 other regional dentistry councils;
• The suspension of WhatsApp’s AI-related terms of service;
• Interim measures imposed on the Regional Real Estate Brokers Council (Conselho Regional de Corretores de Imóveis – 7ª Região); and
• Interim measures imposed on the Brazilian Union of Music Publishers (União Brasileira de Editoras de Música).

As for cartel investigations, the number of leniency agreements signed with the GS declined, with two agreements signed in 2025 compared to four in 2024, continuing the downward trend of recent years:

Source: Anuário do Cade and Estatísticas do Programa de Leniência

CADE’s decisions increasingly challenged in court

2025 was marked by increasing use of the Brazilian judiciary to challenge CADE’s decisions, at times successfully. For example, the Federal Regional Court of the 1st Region (TRF-1) annulled a BRL 247 million fine imposed on Rumo Logística for abuse of dominant position in rail transportation of sugar through the Port of Santos, finding the fine disproportionate to the relevant market and ordering CADE to review its fine calculation methods. In September 2025, CADE imposed a new fine of BRL 20.1 million, based on Rumo’s 2018 revenues in the Paulista Rail corridor. The fine could be reduced to BRL 18.1 million in the event that the parties agree to terminate the related court proceedings.

Similarly, the cases involving Apple, CA Investment, the Soy Moratorium and Meta AI illustrated the growing use of the judiciary by parties subject to interim measures in 2025 and early 2026. In all these cases, the parties appealed to the courts seeking judicial relief – such as writs of mandamus, which played a relevant role in the proceedings – to challenge the interim measures imposed by the GS.

The increasing willingness of the parties to turn to the courts to challenge CADE’s decisions (successfully, in some cases) points to a trend toward greater judicialization of antitrust matters in 2026. This scenario will require both CADE and the companies under investigation to pay close attention as they make enforcement decisions and craft defense strategies, respectively.

CADE’s focus on digital markets

CADE continued to focus on digital markets and platforms in 2025. In July, CADE opened an administrative inquiry into Microsoft for alleged abuse of dominant position in the markets for operating systems, productivity software, and internet browsers for PCs, based on a complaint filed by Opera Norway AS. Similarly, CADE’s Tribunal decided to revive and expand an investigation that the GS originally dismissed into Google’s alleged scraping of journalistic content for direct display on Google Search and Google News, in order to investigate possible abuse of dominant position in the online search and digital advertising markets. In January 2026, CADE opened an administrative inquiry into Microsoft’s alleged anticompetitive practices in the Brazilian cloud computing market, including abuse of dominant position, leveraging market power, tie-in sales and creating artificial barriers to competition.

Another notable case involving digital platforms is an investigation that the GS opened into Meta following a complaint filed by chatbot startups Luzia and Zapia. The investigation deals with alleged abuse of a dominant position arising from changes to WhatsApp Business Solution’s terms of use announced in October 2025, which Luzia and Zapia allege would restrict competing AI providers’ access to the messaging platform, unduly favoring Meta AI. In January 2026, the GS opened an administrative inquiry against Meta and issued an interim measure ordering the suspension of the new terms until the investigations have concluded. Although Meta appealed, in March 2026 CADE’s Tribunal unanimously dismissed the appeal and upheld the interim measures, ordering the company to reinstate the previous access conditions for competing AI chatbots within five days.

Developments in the proceedings involving digital platforms and markets in 2025, as well as the recent opening of the proceedings against Meta and Microsoft, suggest that digital platforms will remain an area of interest for CADE in 2026.

Competition and sustainability

Another prominent issue at CADE regards the intersection between sustainability policies and competition defense. This is exemplified by the Soy Moratorium case, launched by the GS in August 2024. The investigation examines whether companies and associations that signed this voluntary 2006 agreement – which restricts the sale of soybeans produced in deforested areas of the Amazon Biome – have been limiting competition in regard to acquiring the grain. In August 2025, the GS issued interim measures suspending the moratorium, though one of the associations involved obtained a court order suspending those measures. On September 30, 2025, CADE’s Tribunal, by majority vote, partially granted the defendants’ voluntary appeals, upholding the validity of the Soy Moratorium until December 31, 2025. In November 2025, Brazil’s Federal Supreme Court (STF) ordered the suspension of all judicial and administrative proceedings – including at CADE – in which the validity of the Soy Moratorium is at issue.

The Soy Moratorium case highlights the complexity of the debate on the intersection between competition and sustainability, a topic likely to gain further relevance in 2026. CADE and the judiciary are expected to undertake more detailed analysis of the boundaries and possibilities for competitor cooperation on environmental initiatives, which may set important precedents for future sustainability efforts in Brazil.

For more information on these topics, please contact Mattos Filho’s Antitrust practice area.