Companies are investigated for combining bids in tenders for the North-South and West-East railways
The General Superintendence of (Administrative Council for Economic Defense) recommended this Wednesday (June 17, 2026) the conviction of 34 companies for allegedly forming a cartel in public tenders in the state-owned railway engineering company incorporated by Infra S.A. in 2022, for works on the North-South and West-East railways. Here’s the (233 kB).
According to the agency, the investigation identified the existence of a cartel in the national railway infrastructure civil works market. The conduct would have been implemented from 2000 to 2014, with antecedents dating back to the 1980s.
The municipality found that the cartel participated in 7 tenders. Altogether, the amounts invested by the State in this work reach R$9.6 billion.
The investigation lasted 10 years. The administrative process was opened in 2016 and was based on a leniency agreement signed that year. According to Cade, the cartel would have acted through price fixing, market division, formation of consortia between competitors, suppression of proposals, presentation of coverage proposals and exchange of competitively sensitive information.
According to the municipality, the practices aimed to frustrate the competitive nature of bidding. The investigation cites works on the North-South Railway, on sections between Goiás, Tocantins and São Paulo, and on the West-East Integration Railway, on a section between Ilhéus and Barreiras, in Bahia.
The process now goes to the Cade Administrative Court for analysis. The recommendation of the General Superintendence does not mean a definitive conviction. The court will appoint a rapporteur, who will take the case to trial by the panel.
If convicted, companies may pay a fine of 0.1% to 20% of gross revenue in the field of activity in which the infraction was committed. Individuals who may be responsible may be fined up to 20% of the amount applied to the company.
The decisions of the Cade Court are administrative and can still be questioned in the Judiciary. The court is not part of the Judiciary, but is the body responsible for judging competitive processes within the authority.
The general superintendence also recommended the archiving of the case in relation to some investigated due to a lack of sufficient evidence or agreements from companies that collaborated with the investigations.
