More than 1,000 merger transactions judged by CADE in three years under the new Brazilian Competition Law

Law no. 12.529/2011, which established the previous analysis in merger transactions and restructured the Administrative Council for Economic Defense – CADE, celebrated its 3rd anniversary on 29 May 2015. The new legislation has made merger review faster and more efficient, allowing for CADE to intensify its fight against cartels and other anticompetitive conducts.

Under the new law, CADE has reviewed 1,038 merger transactions; of these, 30 transaction have been decided by CADE’s Tribunal, being 20 of them challenged by the General Superintendence before the Tribunal, 3 called up by Commissioners, and 1 appealed by a third interested party. The General Superintendence also submitted 6 cases of gun jumping to the Tribunal’s analysis; in 5 of them CADE has concluded that there was previous consummation.

Currently, the average analysis time on merger transactions is of 31 days. In 2011, the year before the entry into effect of Law no. 12.529/2011, the average time was of 154 days.

Since the restructuration carried out under the new law, 61 Administrative Proceedings regarding anticompetitive conducts have been judged by CADE. Of these, 46 have resulted in condemnation, being 30 cases related to cartel conducts.

In order to intensify the fight against cartels, CADE modified in 2013 the rules on settlements in anticompetitive conducts investigations, known as Cease and Desist Agreements (TCC, in its acronym in Portuguese). Under the new policy, in order to sign agreements in proceedings investigating alleged cartels, the parties must confess their participation in the collusion and collaborate with the investigation, in case the file is in evidentiary stage. Since the dawn of the new law, Cade has signed 120 TCCs, collecting approximately BRL 438 million in pecuniary contributions to the Diffuse Rights Defense Fund (FDD, in its acronym in Portuguese).

The increase in the number of dawn raids carried out in cartel investigations also reaffirms CADE’s efforts in fighting against these anticompetitive conducts. Since the entry into effect of the new law, CADE’s General Superintendence has carried out 11 dawn raid operations. In 2009, 2010 and 2011, there were 6 operations in total.

International Recognition – in the last three years, CADE has received important international awards, such as the Global Competition Review Award of 2014’s Agency of the Year – Americas. The Global Competition Review – GCR is specialized in competition and regulation policy. The publication highlighted that the development of CADE’s work has increased the number of leniency agreements signed in Brazil and forced companies to enhance their compliance programs. Since the implementation of the Leniency Program, in 2003, CADE has signed 42 agreements and 10 addendums.