Brazil's CADE ruled on 41 cases during the election blackout

Brazil's Administrative Council for Economic Defense (CADE) ruled on 41 cases, signed 12 agreements and reviewed 255 mergers between 4 July and 25 October, while election rules limited what it could publish, the authority said on 28 October.

Fines imposed in the period totalled BRL 164,816,116, according to data from CADE's Office of the Coordinator General of Proceedings, and the Office of the Superintendent General concluded two conduct cases. CADE also launched two public consultations. It said the figures may be updated after the elections.

Brazil's electoral law, resolutions of the Superior Electoral Court and a 2026 instruction of the presidency's communications secretariat restrict official publicity during the campaign, and CADE limited its website to institutional notices with technical and operational information, the statement says.

The decisions behind the numbers

The release names the larger cases. On 7 October the Tribunal cleared American Airlines' acquisition of a minority stake in Azul, subject to a merger control agreement with safeguards on governance and information sharing; the deal involved a USD 100 million investment. CADE's Superintendent General had recommended unconditional clearance of the roughly 8 per cent stake on 31 July, CADE said in August.

In September the Tribunal dismissed a proceeding on Amazon's investments in Anthropic, finding that the minority stake did not meet the turnover threshold for mandatory notification and that the agreements were not partnership contracts. In August it upheld the unconditional clearance of Gerais Saneamento's acquisition of 30 per cent of the Minas Gerais water company COPASA after a third-party appeal.

The Tribunal also convicted Cervejaria Petrópolis and Imcopa of gun jumping, with fines of over BRL 1.3 million. In its September statement on the case, CADE said the acquisition had been completed on 19 March 2024, before the notification of 9 April 2024; the companies argued that the transfer of control resulted from court decisions in Imcopa's judicial reorganisation. A cartel agreement with a construction company after four investigations carries a financial contribution of over BRL 90 million, CADE said, without naming the company.

Conduct cases and consultations

In July the Superintendent General recommended that six companies and 18 individuals be convicted in an international cartel case over sports media rights; the case goes to the Tribunal for a final decision, and CADE's release names none of them. CADE also continued its inquiry into 99Food's contract clauses, as reported on 24 October, and imposed a BRL 250,000 procedural penalty on the soy and corn producers' association of Mato Grosso, as reported on 28 October.

The two consultations cover CADE's statutes, with provisions on institutional planning, a priorities agenda and social participation and contributions due by 6 November, and Resolution 33/2022 on merger notifications, as reported on 27 October.

In August CADE also opened applications for the 46th edition of its exchange programme, PinCade, which runs from 11 January to 5 February 2027.

How to read the tally

The release gives totals for the period but no breakdown of the BRL 164.8 million by case, so the Data Desk cannot say how much of it comes from the decisions named above. The two named sums, over BRL 1.3 million for gun jumping and BRL 250,000 for the procedural penalty, would account for about 1 per cent of it if both are counted in the total, on the Data Desk's division. The BRL 90 million agreement is a negotiated financial contribution, not a fine, and the release does not say whether it is counted in the total.

Over the 114 days of the period, from 4 July to 25 October inclusive, the 255 merger reviews average about 2.2 a day, a Data Desk calculation. The release gives no comparison with the same weeks of 2025.