The plenary of the Chamber of Deputies approved this Wednesday (18) the urgency regime of the project sent by the
The request approved with 276 votes in favor (186 deputies voted against) allows the proposals to be accelerated, as they do not need to go through thematic committees. In this case, however, the expectation of the rapporteur, federal deputy Aliel Machado (PV-PR), is that the processing outside the committees will reduce the fronts of
The proposal’s rapporteur adopted a similar strategy when discussing the carbon market regulation law. The parliamentarian’s office has already received 50 requests for meetings to discuss the government’s proposal.
One of the most important changes involves the creation of a Digital Markets Superintendence. This structure could, if the project is approved, initiate proceedings against companies and guide the market
For now there is no deadline for preparing the report that will reach the plenary. Consumer associations, entities that represent companies and groups monitoring activities on the networks are on the list of those who should be consulted to prepare the report.
The bill was sent by the government in September last year, as part of a package that would initially also deal with rules for content published on networks. Finally, the government only sent the proposal prepared by the Ministry of Finance to tighten legislation on competitive conduct by large companies.
The text does not deal with content or the responsibility of companies for what is published, a point considered more controversial as it clashes with understandings of what fits or not within the concept of freedom of expression.
The rapporteur of the text in the Chamber has already argued that the report must foresee measures that prevent the formation of cartels and prevent big techs from dominating price formation or imposing services from their countries of origin.
This is the case, for example, of the obstacles imposed by , the manufacturer of , for the use of Pix in . The Brazilian instant payment system is not accepted by the company, which requires the use of a credit card.
The discussion of regulation also comes up against discussions by the governments of Brazil and , since the latter is against any type of regulation.
The Lula government’s proposal foresees that large platforms be considered “of systemic relevance”, which would trigger measures to protect competition. The text establishes some criteria for a company to be considered of systemic relevance. One of them is the global annual gross revenue of its economic group, which should be greater than R$50 billion, or above R$5 billion annually in Brazil.
The urgency regime for this project was included on the plenary agenda in December, but the vote did not go ahead.
In October, a month after sending the project to the Chamber, big techs represented by the Digital Council released a statement saying that the text will increase compliance costs, reduce access to new technologies and reduce investments. Companies such as Amazon, , Discord, Kwai, , , OpenAI and Uber are under the umbrella of the entity.
The Brazilian Chamber of the Digital Economy stated that the urgency of the project is “incompatible with the complexity of the current text”. Big techs such as Google, Meta and Amazon are on the board of the entity, and digital companies such as Mercado Livre, iFood, Petlove, Visa and Decolar.
The Rights on the Network Coalition said it considers it essential that Cade has instruments to address the issue of competition in digital markets, but classified the measures provided for in the project as limited and insufficient.
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