Cooperation Between the Brazilian Antitrust System and the Brazilian Electricity Regulatory Agency

A recent Agreement aims to encourage competition in the electric power generation, distribution, transmission and commercialization markets in Brazil. On July 21, 2010, the members of SBDC, the Brazilian Antitrust System comprising the Administrative Council for Economic Defense (CADE), the Secretariat of Economic Law of the Ministry of Justice (SDE) and the Secretariat for Economic Monitoring of the Ministry of Finance SEAE), and ANEEL, the Brazilian Electricity Regulatory Agency, executed a Cooperation Agreement aimed at preventing anticompetitive conduct in the electricity.

The Agreement reflects the agencies' interest in eliminating conflicts, setting standards and increasing synergies and information exchange in order to establish a solid base for decisions regarding antitrust and competition issues in connection with the Brazilian electricity sector. This Agreement also sets forth possibilities to enforce the antitrust law in cases involving abuse by market players.

The agencies will develop studies, projects and activities of common interest, as well as proposals for industry-related seminars. The Agreement also provides for exchanging information about SBDC's administrative proceedings and the contribution of ANEEL during the analysis.

Under the Agreement, (i) SDE will request that ANEEL issue an opinion within 30 days about potential evidence of unlawful anticompetitive conducts in the electricity sector, (ii) ANEEL will provide such evidence to SDE for analysis, and (iii) after a preliminary defense by the party under investigation, SDE will send ANEEL a copy of the administrative procedure for issuance of the opinion within 30 days.

In connection with merger reviews, SDE will send ANEEL a copy of the transaction documents within 15 days and ANEEL will issue an opinion about the transaction and will send it to SDE within 30 days.

Cooperation Between the Brazilian Antitrust System and the Brazilian Electricity Regulatory Agency

ANEEL will also disclose to the antitrust authorities the final results of the index adjustments and/or tariff revisions approved by the agency, in order to assist studies and projections of the economic impact on the inflation rates. In return, ANEEL will be informed about the results of these studies and projections before public disclosure.

The agencies will appoint individuals who will be responsible for ensuring compliance with the Agreement; these individuals will be authorized to attend meetings and...

To continue reading

Request your trial

VLEX uses login cookies to provide you with a better browsing experience. If you click on 'Accept' or continue browsing this site we consider that you accept our cookie policy. ACCEPT