CADE promotes antitrust discussions at Brazilian universities

This June, the Administrative Council for Economic Defense (CADE) launches the “CADE at Universities” project aimed at closer relations with the academic field in several Brazilian cities. In addition to disclosing CADE’s work, such an initiative developed by the Department of Economic Studies of CADE seeks to promote the antitrust debate with law and economic students and answer their questions.

The pilot project is to occur until 2024 and take place in at least two universities per each macro-region of Brazil. The first one happens at the university Cesupa, in the state of Pará on 5 and 6 June. On 7 June, it takes place at Unama, in the state of Amazonas.

The Chief Economist of CADE, Guilherme Resende, reveals the project will include several topics related to competition, such as antitrust review, digital markets, and competition defence. The purpose is to cover from basic to more complex topics to catch students' interest and encourage them to deepen their knowledge in the field of antitrust.

“We have produced relevant studies in recent years, which we now largely make public. This project will allow us to present the performance of CADE so far, attract the interest of scholars and encourage them to address antitrust-related topics in their undergraduate or graduate thesis”, Mr Resende stated.

As a speaker in the first part of the project and university professor, Mr Resende also stresses the relevance of disseminating CADE’s activities across Brazilian universities, mainly to those still unfamiliar with the antitrust agencies’ work.

He further states the project will allow CADE to find skilled professionals that may offer consultancy services on specific topics and activities of the agency in the future. “Economic consulting is highly found in the Brazilian Southeast region. So in the next year or two we may see the results of this initiative.”

Competition advocacy

Besides its role of reviewing mergers and investigating anticompetitive conduct, CADE has also an educational role.

To this extent, the antitrust authority aims at educating the general public about practices that may pose risks to market competition in Brazil. Activities related to competition advocacy include training, workshops, seminars, and events to promote and disseminate free competition culture.

The project “CADE at Universities” is part of such an important role and is in line with other CADE’s initiatives aimed at university students. According to Mr Resende, this project “adds to other initiatives, such as PinCade and WiCade, and may become regular.”

PinCade is a programme offered since 1999 that introduces university students to CADE’s activities at its headquarters in Brasília, making them experience the reality of competition defence. During four weeks, students take part in training activities, case reviews and studies, and technical opinion and reports elaboration regarding current cases under CADE’s scrutiny.

WiCade, in turn, is an antitrust simulation experience for Brazilian undergraduate students in partnership with the network Women in Antitrust (WIA). In it, participants simulate the hearing of a hypothetical case. The notice for participation in the 3rd edition of WiCade has been issued recently. Application submissions open on 23 June