The vote on the urgency and discussion of the PL (Bill) that deals with the competition regulation of digital platforms was postponed until after Carnival. The text creates the Superintendency of Digital Markets within the scope of CADE (Administrative Council for Economic Defense), which will identify companies that have a central role and disproportionate market power in the digital environment.
After the president of the House, Hugo Motta (Republicanos-PB), announced the vote on urgency on the text, sector entities and parliamentary fronts spoke out for the postponement.
In a note, the FPN (Parliamentary Front for the Business Environment), together with the Coalition of Productive Fronts, claimed that the lack of technical analysis, impact studies and debate with the affected sectors compromises legal certainty, regulatory predictability and the business environment.
As for the Digital Council, a Brazilian entity that represents large companies in the sector, the article targets big techs, but hits the entire online and offline economic ecosystem. The entity also claims that the PL allows CADE the possibility of intervening in the business model, algorithms and data flow.
What does the project say
According to the project, CADE will be able to identify companies that have a central role and disproportionate market power in the digital environment. Factors such as presence in multiple markets, market power associated with network effects, vertical integration, access to large volumes of data and a significant number of users will be considered.
Furthermore, only economic groups with global annual gross revenue exceeding R$50 billion, or revenue in Brazil exceeding R$5 billion, can be designated.
Once designated as systemically relevant, the company may be subject to specific duties to promote competition. Among the possible obligations is the obligation to maintain an office in Brazil and updated legal representatives.
