The so-called Brazilian Competition Defense System (SBDC) has
been working hard to improve the Brazilian antitrust system and
optimize both the analysis of highly complex merger review cases
and anticompetitive practices investigations. Among the recent
actions taken to avoid further and continuous complaints that often
place the system's efficiency in the spotlight, is the 2-year
cooperation agreement entered into between the Administrative
Economic Defense Council (CADE) and the Secretariat of Economic Law
(SDE), of the Ministry of Justice, which was published in the
Official Gazette on August 20, 2007. Under this cooperation
agreement, the analysis of formal requirements to be met by filed
documents regarding transactions not raising competitive concerns
(and thus subject to the fast track procedure or "procedimento
sumário", as it is known in Portuguese), will be
performed by CADE's Attorney-General's Office (and no
longer by the SDE). In Brazil, government action
