Competition Buzz: The Use of EU Competition Precedents in Brazilian Competition Judgments

Christopher Townley, King’s College

Adriana Cardinali

Although CADE does not directly base its judgments on foreign law, when interpreting Brazilian law it refers to EU and US antitrust for ideas on how to develop its own rules and to confirm its own judgments, some believe that this is appropriate. There are many who argue that the Brazilian competition rules governing anti-competitive arrangements aim to protect consumer welfare. If Brazilian and EU competition laws have the same goals, then as long as one takes account of the different institutional and socio-economic contexts (as well as the specific provisions of the competition laws themselves), it makes sense for CADE to rely on the outcomes of similar EU competition decisions to confirm its own judgments.

This paper focuses on the rules that apply to anti-competitive agreements (not including merger agreements) on the EU side. The relevant rule in the European legal order is Article 101 TFEU. The Authors do not examine US antitrust, but a similar point is relevant there, to the extent that US goals diverge from Brazilian ones.

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