CADE receives 4 stars in international ranking

The Administrative Council for Economic Defense - CADE received four stars for a ranking conducted annually by the British magazine Global Competition Review - GCR, specialized in competition policy and regulation. The evaluation is related to the 2012 performance. With four stars, Cade won the ninth position in the rank, just after the agencies of the European Union, France, Germany, United Kingdom, United States (Department of Justice’s antitrust division and the Federal Trade Commission), Australia and Japan.

In this issue, 37 antitrust agencies from 34 countries and the European Union were analyzed. The GCR evaluates the performance of global antitrust by grading the agencies on a scale of zero to five stars. It is the first time that Cade has received this rating. In 2011, it received three and a half stars.

According to the magazine, the transition period for the Law 12.529/11 exceeded expectations. "Cade did an excellent job in implementing its new law and the construction of the new agency," according to the publication. The Brazilian antitrust agency was efficient in the implementation of the new rules, given the complexity of the changes.

"The transition to the new law was successful due to the effort and commitment of all Cade’s staff," said the president of Cade, Vinicius Marques de Carvalho.

The GCR positively noted that the pre merger regime brought by the new law allowed Cade to examine simple mergers in an average period of 19 days - one of the fastest in the world, according to the magazine. Tougher merger notification criteria, such as the increase in the criterion for merger notification to BRL 750 million for a business and BRL 75 million for the other in annual revenue.

The magazine also noted that, although few cases of anticompetitive conduct were submitted in the past year, Cade intensified the work to end ancient investigations of cartels and other anticompetitive practices. In addition, the agency has improved the methods within the leniency program - which provides immunity or reduction of administrative and criminal penalties applicable to a participant in anticompetitive conduct that denounces the practice and cooperates with investigations.

According to Cade’s General Superintendent, Carlos Emmanuel Joppert Ragazzo, with the application of the new law the tendency is to focus the fight against anticompetitive conduct on significant cases. "Our goal is to focus on big cases, with high probability of conviction in diversified sectors and localities. We conduct investigations more carefully and process them much faster. This will increase our capability to reduce the number of anticompetitive conduct in Brazil. "

Antitrust Policy Advocacy – according to the GCR, Cade exercised its educational role by launching last year the campaign commemorating its fiftieth anniversary, aired on websites, magazines and national newspapers. The action includes a hot site with presentation of historical information about the agency and its main responsibilities. The campaign is part of the project Cade 50 Years created with the purpose of promoting competition defense and preserving the memory of the institution.

Hosting the 11th Annual Conference of the International Competition Network - ICN in Rio de Janeiro, in 2012, was also considered in the evaluation of the magazine. Brazil was the first country in South America to welcome the event, which gathered around 400 participants, including representatives of competition authorities worldwide, international organizations and experts from the academic and professional scenario.