CADE presents proposal of guidelines on competition compliance programs

The Administrative Council for Economic Defense – CADE presented, during the judgment session of 19 August, the preliminary version of the Guidelines for Competition Compliance Programs – a set of internal measures adopted by an economic agent that allows it to prevent or minimize risks of infringements to the statutes related to its activity, or to detect them more quickly if they do take place.

The English version of the document is already available at the authority’s website and CADE is already receiving comments on its content. The Council intends to hold meetings to discuss the subject with lawyers, representatives from companies, academics, etc., and will receive individual contributions from society, that can be sent to guiadecompliance@cade.gov.br until 18 October.

The guidelines are directed at the creation of a program internal to companies that is effective in avoiding infringements to the Brazilian Competition Law. The recommendations aim especially at conducts, since the Council already developed and published the Guidelines on Gun Jumping in regards to mergers and acquisitions.

The main objective is to guide companies in implementing compliance directed at Competition Law, covering what a competition compliance program is, how it can be implemented and what are the benefits of its adoption. The guidelines are suggestions that either may or may not be adopted, according to each company’s particularities. The assessment by CADE of the adoption of these suggestions will happen on a case-by-case basis.