CADE publishes Working Paper on cartel overcharges in Brazilian cement sector

On 12 November 2025, the Administrative Council for Economic Defense (CADE) published the working paper “Estimativa do Sobrepreço em Cartéis: Evidências do Cartel do Cimento no Brasil”, which estimates cartel overcharges in the Brazilian cement sector. The study measures overcharges as an indicator of immediate economic impacts observed in the Brazilian cement market, resulting from a cartel that operated in the country from 1994 to 2007.

Based on a search and seizure operation carried out by CADE in February 2007, the study used the difference-in-differences (DiD) estimation to show that cement prices fell by an average of 2%, resulting in savings of approximately BRL 11.8 billion for consumers between 2007 and 2022. The paper highlights the importance of antitrust policy in promoting more competitive markets and providing welfare benefits for society.

Ms Lílian Marques, Chief Economist of CADE, emphasises that the study plays a crucial role in the continuous improvement of CADE’s decisions “The document shows the great efforts made by the DEE team to improve ex post evaluations, reinforcing CADE’s commitment to understand the impacts of its decisions and continuously enhance its work”.

The document is composed of four sections, consisting of the introduction, methodology, results, and final remarks. First, it introduces the subject and scope of the work, detailing the issues to be addressed; second, it presents in detail the data sources used; third, it sets out the descriptive statistics and the results of the econometric estimations obtained; and lastly, it addresses the resulting implications of the study and potential contributions to antitrust policy in the cement industry.

The results reinforce the effectiveness of antitrust policy in Brazil, showing the economic gains after eliminating overcharges in long-lasting cartels and highlighting the role of competition policy in promoting competitive markets and increasing social welfare.

Access the document here (Portuguese only).