CADE remains among the best antitrust agencies of the world

The president of the Administrative Council for Economic Defense – CADE, Mr. Alexandre Barreto de Souza, announced, during the judgment session of 16 August, that the authority remains in the ten best antitrust agencies of the world. For the fifth consecutive year, CADE has received four stars in the annual ranking promoted by the British magazine Global Competition Review – GCR Rating Enforcement, which is specialized in regulation and competition policy.

During the announcement, Barreto explained that the world ranking promoted by GCR is based on the performance of the competition authorities in the previous year. The classification is measured in stars (from one to five), and takes into consideration the general performance of the antitrust agencies.

“As a result of the four stars, CADE remains amongst the top 10 antitrust agencies in the world. I would like to seize this opportunity to congratulate the commissioners and all CADE’s collaborators who decisively contributed to this important international acknowledgement”, said the President.

In this edition, 38 agencies from several jurisdictions were evaluated based on qualitative and quantitative criteria. The evaluation concerns the antitrust authorities’ performance in 2016 regarding the protection of the economy against anticompetitive practices.

According to the publication, which announced CADE’s position, the authority maintained its grade for continuing to reduce the average analysis time of mergers and for having the ability to conduct deep analysis in complex operations, such as in the cases Hypermarcas/Reckitt Benckiser, HSBC/Bradesco and SBT/RedeTV/Record, all of which were approved with conditions.

In addition, GCR’s report considered the publication of the guidelines concerning compliance, leniency, Cease and Desist Agreements (TCC in its acronym in Portuguese) and horizontal mergers, as a good performance indicator that provided more clarity and efficiency to the Brazilian antitrust community.

The British magazine also highlighted CADE’s leniency program, which continues to be “a brilliant point to the authority”, having obtained a record number of applications for leniency in 2016. The publication also highlighted the consistent condemnation of bid riggings through its cases last year. 

CADE’s effort in maintaining transparency of information to society and the commitment of its senior staff in participating in events with lawyers and students was as positively noted by GCR. These initiatives were mentioned as a means to foster the debate regarding the defense of competition.

This year, CADE has received another international acknowledgment by GCR, the authority was considered the best antitrust agency of the Americas in 2016.