CADE announced the creation of a working group that will be responsible for preparing a guide, called ‘Guide V’, on the analysis of vertical mergers. The group is comprised of five public servants, under the coordination of the General-Coordination of Antitrust Analysis 5, and it will count on the participation of representatives from the Department of Economic Studies of CADE (DEE) and the Brazilian Institute of Studies on Competition, Consumption, and International Trade (IBRAC)’ in the discussions.
By announcing the working group and the future Guide V, CADE follows the international trend of competition authorities to delve deeper into the discussions related to vertical mergers.
For example, authorities from the USA plan to revise the Vertical Mergers Guideline. This guide, which was launched jointly by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and the Department of Justice (DOJ) in 2020 and revoked in 2021, addressed the main practices and techniques of applying competition policy in cases involving vertical integrations.
The European Commission has just released a new version of its Guideline on vertical restraints in May of this year. This Guide was launched together with the Vertical Block Exemption Regulation (VRBER) after a long review process, which also involved the launch of an impact assessment and a public consultation to collect subsidies.
