CADE holds workshop with European specialist in competition law

On 13 April, the Administrative Council for Economic Defense (CADE) held a workshop for its civil servants with Professor Richard Whish, a European specialist in competition law. Professor Whish talked about challenges and updates related to antitrust, focusing on the analysis of vertical mergers and abuse of a dominant position.

Mr Richard Whish is an Emeritus Professor of Law at King's College London and formerly served as a non-executive director of the Office of Fair Trading in the United Kingdom and the Singaporean Energy Markets Authority. 

During his lecture, Professor Whish analysed of recent key cases under the EU and UK jurisdictions. He also highlighted the initiative of the European Commission to amend the guidelines applied to Article 102 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU) that governs the abusive conduct of companies holding a dominant position.

Another addressed issue was vertical merger reviews, which are gaining more attention from the European Commission, especially with the recent guidelines issued by the Competition & Markets Authority (CMA) on merger assessment in 2021.

On this matter, the Professor stressed the importance of CADE having the initiative to write and publish a guide on vertical merger review to provide the Brazilian market with security and predictability. The document is in the preparation stage by a working group responsible for conducting studies and research and elaborating the guidelines, which later will be subject to public consultation and contributions from society.

The workshop with Professor Richard Whish was an excellent opportunity for the civil servants of CADE to expand their knowledge and perspectives in the field of antitrust.