Competition law and policy in Brazil: new developments

2022’s third edition of ‘Competition law and policy in Brazil: new developments’ summarizes the standout developments within Brazil’s competition law, focusing on the Administrative Council for Economic Defense’s (Cade) approach to specific cases in its role as Brazil’s antitrust authority.

This material provides analysis from Mattos Filho’s antitrust professionals, with insights and trends that companies should look out for when doing or seeking to do business in Brazil.

A summary of the chapters is outlined below:

New developments at Cade’s General Superintendence

The first article addresses new developments at Cade’s General Superintendence (GS), which has established a new unit focused on investigating abuses of dominant position, as well as a working group for analyzing vertical relationships and drafting guidelines for cases involving vertical concerns. There have also been updates to Cade’s internal procedures, such as those regarding deadlines and requirements for the GS to review cases.

Trends in Cade’s review of merger cases

The second article covers new trends in how Cade analyzes merger transactions. These include the increasing use of artificial intelligence and microdata in analyzing mergers, how merger cases are negotiated (with a particular focus on the Carrefour/Grupo BIG case), and Cade’s increased scrutiny of third-party intervention requests.

Cade’s Tribunal split on how to calculate monetary contributions in ‘Lava Jato‘ settlement agreements

The third article addresses the rulings on 19 settlement agreements linked to Operation Car Wash (Operação Lava-Jato) at Cade’s Tribunal. There were diverging opinions among the Tribunal’s commissioners in relation to how the monetary contributions for these agreements should be calculated.

Legislative amendments regarding antitrust damages litigation in Brazil

The final article discusses a bill that is set to amend the Brazilian Competition Law in order to incentivize antitrust damages litigation. The bill’s amendments address issues such as the statute of limitations for filing damages claims, double compensation for damages, and procedural changes that aim to make antitrust damages proceedings more efficient and predictable.

The full publication can be accessed by clicking here.

For further information on competition law and policy, please see previous editions of Competition law and policy in Brazil: new developments.