CADE convicts Brazilian Council of Architecture and Urban Planning for price fixing

The Office of the Superintendent General of CADE (SG/CADE) convicted the Brazilian Council of Architecture and Urban Planning (CAU/BR) of antitrust violations in the Brazilian Architectural Services market.

The SG launched the investigation after a complaint about price fixing on architecture and urban planning services was submitted to the Clique-Denúncia platform. Even though the professional council had a legal authorisation to approve and publish fee schedules, it exceeded the limits of the operation scope. https://www.gov.br/cade/pt-br/canais_atendimento/clique-denuncia

Evidence showed that, besides approving and publishing the fee schedules, CAU/BR was actively involved in their standardisation. In addition, the defendant included the fee schedules in the institution's Code of Ethics, along with punitive measures in case of non-compliance, although there is no legal provision for this.

Based on evidence, the SG concluded there was an antitrust violation and recommended the imposition of a fine.

The SG referred the case to the Tribunal of CADE, which is to be assigned to a Rapporteur for a final decision.

Clique-Denúncia

Clique-Denúncia is a reporting channel that enables individuals and companies to report antitrust violations to CADE, such as cartels, market manipulation, territorial restrictions, tied selling, among others. It also accepts reports on mergers and acquisitions that were not notified to the agency, as well as potential non-compliance with the Merger Control Agreement.