The Head of the Brazilian Antitrust Service Holds a Practical Competition Session

Special guest of the Institute, Commissioner of Brazil's Council for Economic Defence (CADE), Professor Mario de Oliveira Júnior, along with Ioannis Lianos, Chief Researcher at the HSE-Skolkovo Institute for Law and Development, together held a practical discussion session on the direction of development of antitrust in BRICS countries.

Mario de Oliveira Júnior in detail, using specific case studies, described the principles of the antitrust authorities in Brazil, about their structure and logic and the regulations and control schemes implemented for mergers and acquisitions, cartels, and public procurement. It emerged that "the Brazilian FAS" (Federal Antimonopoly Service) has a very innovative, proactive approach to combating anti-competitive practices. For example, to combat cartels for the greater good, CADE provides an opportunity for participants in cartels to voluntarily come forward and provide information about the cartel. With companies willing to cooperate, CADE enters into confidential agreements mitigating liability, subsequently reducing the sum of the cartel fine. "We are very serious about cartels; no matter the scale, let there be two bakers on the one street," explained our guest. "We want to demonstrate to the population that competition is very important, and we try to encourage it in all possible ways".
The role of economic analysis in legal practice in the sphere of protection of competition roused great interest from the assembled experts. Mario de Oliveira Júnior affirmed that economic and econometric tools have ever more weight in usage by antitrust authorities and, moreover, cases are known whose fates were decided solely on the basis of data extracted from economic science assay. CADE has established a special Department for Economic Research, which examines, consults, and conducts independent analytical work. Answering a question by Alexey Ivanov on international cooperation, Mario de Oliveira Júnior said: "Undoubtedly, you will need an international agreement between the BRICS countries on close cooperation and information exchange in the sphere of antitrust regulation. I strongly support this approach."