The Federal Government sent to the House of Representatives, on Wednesday (17), a Big Techs Economic Regulation Bill, with measures to combat practices that undermine competition in the digital world. The project was prepared by the Secretariat of Economic Reforms of the Ministry of Finance with a technical group coordinated by the Civil House.
The project proposes adjustments to the Brazilian Competition Defense System (SBDC – Law No. 12.529/2011) enabling the creation of new mechanisms to prevent the abuse of economic power by large digital platforms.
The text seeks to prevent practices that undermine free competition and ensure more transparency, balance and freedom of choice, as well as lower prices, to consumers and companies. The idea, according to the government, is to correct distortions, cheaper services and preserve the space for innovation.
During the presentation of the project, at Planalto Palace, Finance Minister Fernando Haddad said competition is an old acquaintance of capitalism that tends to concentrate capital in a few hands, leading to the formation of oligopolies and monopolies in the economy.
“The digital world has evolved so fast that the legislation has not followed the step -by -step concentration of power and money that these large economic groups maintain today. It is the duty of the state to regulate such a concentrated sector, preventing unfair and anti -confidential practices that will harm small, medium and even big business,” said the minister.
Haddad made a point of highlighting that the project preparation process began over a year ago and underwent public consultation. “This project deals with business environment and fair competitive practices in Brazil,” he said.
Designation and obligations
The bill creates two administrative proceedings within the Administrative Council for Economic Defense (Cade):
- the designation of systemic relevance platforms for digital markets and
- the determination of special obligations to the designated platforms.
According to the PL, Cade should make this designation from qualitative characteristics, in addition to observing a minimum revenue floor – over R $ 5 billion annually in Brazil and R $ 50 billion in global terms. The designation will be made on a case by case basis, upon the establishment of administrative proceedings and subject to the approval of the Cade Court.
The text provides that platforms may be submitted to previous rules for transparency, obligations, prohibitions and specific procedures. As in the designation, the determination of special obligations to digital platforms will be submitted to collegiate approval of the Cade Court, which must specify the obligations and determine a fine in case of non -compliance.
There is also the forecast of creation of the Digital Markets Superintendence (SMD), a CADE unit to address new procedures related to systemic relevance platforms in digital markets.
The new unit will be responsible for monitoring digital markets, instructing the processes of designation of economic agents and determining special obligations, submitting them to the Cade Court, as well as observing compliance with obligations and investigating possible violations.
