CADE earns 4.5 stars in GCR’s 2026 antitrust enforcement ranking

The Global Competition Review (GCR) awarded Brazil’s Administrative Council for Economic Defense (CADE) 4.5 stars in its 2026 Rating Enforcement survey, placing it among the world’s best-performing competition authorities.

CADE was rated “very good”, the survey’s second-highest category, alongside the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC), the French Competition Authority, and the South Korean Fair Trade Commission (KFTC).

Only the European Comission’s Directorate-General for Competition (DG COMP), and Germany’s Federal Cartel Office (Bundeskartellamt) received the top five-star rating. The survey also includes a “good” category for ratings of 3 to 3.5 stars, and a “fair” category for 2.5 stars.

CADE was the highest-rated Latin American competition authority among those assessed. The other Latin American authority surveyed, Chile’s National Economic Prosecutor (FNE), received 3.5 stars and was rated “good”.

CADE’s enforcement record in 2025

The GCR reviewed CADE’s 2025 performance in cartel enforcement, merger control, and anticompetitive conduct investigations, staffing, and finances. CADE’s annual budget rose to BRL 67 million (EUR 11.5 million), all allocated to competition policy activities.

CADE had 239 staff working on competition enforcement: 42% lawyers, 26% economists, and 1% data scientists. Women accounted for 51.5% of the staff and men for 48.5%. During the year, 84 staff joined and 65 left, with an average tenure of 4 years and 7 months.

Merger notifications to CADE rose from 712 to 873. Of these, 45 (about 5%) underwent in-depth review, taking an average of 120 days. The agency also challenged 7 merger transactions, around 1% of those notified. None was blocked. All 7 were cleared subject to the behavioural or structural remedies to mitigate potential harm to competition.

Cartel fines more than doubled compared with the previous year, reaching BRL 555.5 million, or 88% of CADE’s total monetary penalties. In 2025, CADE received 2 first-in leniency applications and carried out 3 dawn raids. Cartel investigations completed during the year took an average of 1189 days.

Investigations into anticompetitive conduct

Abuse of a dominant position featured more prominently in CADE’s enforcement work. The Office of the Superintendent General at CADE (SG) opened 50 new investigations into this type of conduct. Fines for abuse of dominance rose from BRL 106,000 in 2024 to BRL 35 million in 2025, accounting for 5% of the agency’s total monetary penalties. These cases took an average length of 460 days to investigate.

Across all infringements, CADE imposed BRL 634 million in fines. CADE also approved 75 cease and desist agreements, the highest number since 2015. The agreements involved 66

companies and 14 individuals and resulted in more than BRL 357 million in financial contributions.

The Department of Economic Studies (DEE) estimated that CADE’s enforcement actions in 2024 generated approximately BRL 3.9 billion in social benefits.

Sector highlights

The report also identifies sectors that featured prominently in CADE’s investigations and merger reviews. Fuel markets were a priority in 2025, with stronger investigations into collusive practices, updated econometric and advocacy studies, and greater cooperation with public authorities.

Digital markets gained relevance in investigations into the abuse of dominant position and other anticompetitive conduct. The report also mentions the Brazilian government’s submission of Bill 4675/2025 on digital markets to the Congress. The Bill proposes an ex ante regulatory regime for digital platforms of systemic relevance.

High-profile merger reviews also involved telecommunications, industrial bread and packaged bakery products, and pet products and services. The GCR also highlights investigations at the intersection of competition law and intellectual property, particularly standard-essential patents.

The 4.5-star rating, awarded for the 2nd consecutive year, places CADE alongside other highly rated competition authorities worldwide.