The President’s Government Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (PT) studies a draft law to strengthen Cade (Administrative Council for Economic Defense) in combating the abuse of economic power by big techs. The initiative aims to expand the competences of the Brazilian antitrust authority, allowing preventive measures against giants in the sector even before the proof of anticoncorrested practices. The information is from Folha de S. Paulo.
According to the newspaper, the proposal provides that Cade has the power to impose corrections of conduct on companies previously designated as “of systemic relevance” in their respective markets. The criterion would restrict the new rules to a select corporation group – possibly between ten and fifteen companies, including Google (Goog), Apple (AAPL), Goal (Goal), Amazon (AMZN) and Microsoft (MSFT).
The text would allow investigations on practices such as self -factories, when companies prioritize their own products over competition. This strategy is at the center of an action against Amazon in the United States. Google and Apple also face processes in the US and Europe for alleged monopolistic practices in digital ad markets and application stores.
The new Brazilian model is inspired, according to the Sheetin recent legislation adopted in countries such as UK and Germany. In 2024, the European Union fined Google (8 billion euros), Microsoft (2 billion euros), Apple (1.8 billion euros) and goal (800 million euros) for antitrust violations. In the United States, Big Techs face investigations from the Justice Department and the Federal Commission (FTC), which can lead to stricter actions against these companies.
Cade opens public hearing
While the government discusses a new regulation for Big Techs, Cade has opened a public hearing announcement on competition aspects in digital ecosystems, with registration until February 12.
The purpose of the consultation is to obtain subsidies from the company to deepen the debate on mobile operating systems, dominated by Apple (IOS) and Google (Android), which are already the target of investigations from competition defense authorities in several countries.
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In Brazil, digital markets have increasingly drawing Cade’s attention, which has received a growing number of complaints about anticoncorrested practices in the sector. The latter was opened by, due to alleged restrictions imposed by the iPhone manufacturer at the App Store application store.
