ICN celebrates 25 years of competition advocacy

This October, the International Competition Network (ICN) celebrates 25 years. It is the only global forum exclusively dedicated to competition defence and it gathers more than 140 competition authorities.

The ICN was created in 2001 by 14 antitrust agencies (Australia, Canada, European Union, France, Germany, Israel, Italy, Japan, Korea, Mexico, South Africa, United Kingdom, United States, and Zambia) aimed at fostering cooperation, experience exchange, and best practices towards competition policies.

Throughout this time, the forum has been the core link between antitrust authorities and contributed to the development of good practice recommendations which are useful to merger review, investigation of anticompetitive practices, and promotion of more efficient markets.

CADE and ICN partnership

Since 2002, CADE participates actively in the ICN and, in 2005, joined the board in setting the work plan. The authority has led relevant projects and co-chaired working groups such as the Agency Effectiveness Working Group (AEWG) from 2012 to 2015, the Cartel Working Group (CWG), between 2017 and 2020, the Merger Working Group (MWG), from 2020 to 2023, and the Unilateral Conduct Working Group (UCWG), between 2023 and 2026. Since May 2026, CADE has co-chaired the Advocacy Working Group (AWG) and has lead the project regarding the prioritisation of advocacy actions.

Additionally, CADE held important ICN events in Brazil such as the 2019 ICN Cartel Workshop, the 2022 ICN Merger Workshop, the 2025 ICN Unilateral Conduct, and the 2012 and 2024 ICN annual conferences, one of the most important events in the field.

Moreover, between 2021 and 2025, Cade was the NGA Liaison serving as the hub for the non-governmental advisors (NGAs). During this period, the Brazilian authority moderated special sessions for them in the annual conferences, updated the NGA Toolkit, and developed a report on their effective participation in the ICN projects and activities.