Brasil: Regulator calls for conviction of Ediouro publishers

Brazil’s competition regulators CADE has recommended the conviction of book publishers Ediouro for anticompetitive practices in the national market of leisure magazines, which include crosswords and puzzles.The publisher is accused of having harmed competition by trying to prevent the establishment and the development of other companies in the market.

According to the evidence presented in the case-file, Ediouro started preliminary actions and lawsuits against competitor publishers, by presenting inconsistent grounding. During the course of the lawsuits, Ediouro proposed financial compensation to the competitors, in order to end the lawsuits and keep them out of the market. Furthermore, between 1999 and 2009, Ediouro sent 16 extrajudicial notifications to competitors for supposedly disrespecting intellectual and/or industrial property rights. However, during the investigation, it was possible to prove that these property rights have not been granted, the spurious claims used to maintain the publisher’s dominant position.

Finally, Ediouro utilized its dominant position in order to try to prevent the access of competitors to distribution facilities. The evidence showed that, at least in one occasion, the company would have pushed a big magazine and publications distribution company to interrupt the distribution of another publisher.

Source: CADE

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