Cooperation Agreements between Competitors to Promote Sustainable Development Measures : What Should Cade's Role Be?

The most important antitrust authorities in the world, such as the Administrative Council for Economic Defense (CADE), have been dealing (or preparing to deal) in the last few months with cooperation or collaboration agreements between competitors related to the economic problems directly generated by the pandemic of COVID-19. Considering that antitrust laws, such as the Brazilian one (Law 12,529/11), prohibit agreements between competitors for price combinations, division of markets and restrictions on the supply of products and services, as well as ban the exchange of competitively sensitive information between competing companies, some authorities made [May-July 2020] uncommon announcements to the market, following OECD recommendations1, on the limits of cooperation agreements between competitors related to fighting the COVID-19 pandemic crisis, so that they are considered acceptable and immune from punishment