CADE signs Cease and Desist Agreement with REDECARD

The Administrative Council for Economic Defense – CADE – signed a Cease and Desist Agreement (TCC, for its acronym in Portuguese) with REDECARD S/A through which the company commits to refrain from performing any conduct that might harm the economic order and free competition. The agreement was signed as part of the Administrative Proceeding 08012.004089/2009-01, that investigates alleged practices of abuse of dominant position and limitation to competition in the Brazilian market of facilitation and monitoring of commercial transactions through the Internet.

Facilitators are agents that operate in e-commerce offering, among other services, the possibility for consumers to perform electronic transactions without informing their financial data to the online shops. Thus, it allows commercial establishments to receive the payments without the need to be accredited to different credit card companies.
Under the agreement, REDECARD will have to pay BRL 7.45 million as a pecuniary contribution.

The Reporting Commissioner, Alessandro Octaviani, stated that the investigated conduct ceased in 2009, when CADE implemented a preventive measure ordering REDECARD to suspend the practices, which were considered potentially anticompetitive. Octaviani stressed that the TCC is only signed if it is guaranteed that the positive effects derived from it will outweigh the effects derived from continuing of the investigations. The case was opened after a complaint presented by the Brazilian Internet Association – ABRANET. With the signature of the TCC, the proceeding remains suspended until that the settled obligations are declared fulfilled by CADE.