CADE maintains Cement Cartel Fines

On the judgmenet session of 29 July 2015, the Administrative Council for Economic Defense – CADE clarified omissions and contradictions of the decision rendered on the judgment of so-called cement cartel, in May 2014, and modified one of the foreseen sanctions. The Tribunal kept the fines applied to six companies, three associations and six individuals, which sums BRL 3,1 billion.    
  
The reporting Commissioner of the motions for clarification, Ana Frazão, explained it was necessary to remedy unclear items and omissions on the votes rendered in the Administrative Proceeding no. 08012.011142/2006-79. According to Frazão, however, there was not any reason to review the evidences, as some of the parties have requested, nor to even rediscuss understandings already well reasoned.  

The revision resulted in the modification of the obligation to publicize the extract of CADE’s decision in mass circulation newspapers. The Council reduced the number of media channels needed to disseminate the decision to only one newspaper, which must be among the biggest national periodicals. This obligation is applied only to the legal entities condemned. 
  
“There was already a considerable repercussion of the judgment, with the media coverage and communication channels, reason why part of the disseminationobjectives have already been reached. Furthermore, it is clear that the financial burden of a publication is bigger for the individuals than to the companies and associations”, the commissioner has assessed. 

Regarding the deadlines for the obligations, CADE’s Tribunal fixed 30 days for the payment of the fines imposed to the parties and five years to the condemned companies to make their registration on the National Consumer Defense Registry. The definition of the deadline for the non-concession of federal tributes installment, cancelation of the tax incentives or public subsidies by the Federal Revenue Office will be set by its own, as it is a CADE’s recommendation. All the deadlines must be counted from of the date the administrative proceedings’ decision becomes unappealable. 
 
In her vote, Frazão also clarified that the condemned companies’ obligation to inform transactions to the Brazilian Competition Protection System - BCPS, refers to the mergers made by the parties in the cement sector, even if they are not subjected to the notification thresholds foreseen by the law.