The New Brazilian Competition Act

The new Brazilian Competition Act - Law 12.529/2011 - comes into effect on 29 May 2012. It brings significant changes to merger control and to the rules on investigations of anticompetitive behaviour, as well as restructuring the Brazilian competition authority (Conselho Administrativo de Defesa Economica – CADE).

Key aspects include:

Merger Control

• The big change is that transactions caught by the new merger control rules must be pre-notified and may not close until clearance is obtained from the CADE;
  
  
• Transactions covered by the merger control procedure include acquisitions of controlling interests, mergers and joint ventures;
  
  
• Threshold requirements: the group turnover generated in Brazil by at least one party must exceed BRL 400 million (approx. £140 million) and the group turnover generated in Brazil by at least one other party must exceed BRL 30 million (approx. £10 million);