On July 23, 2025, the Brazilian Administrative Council for Economic Defense (“CADE”) published CADE Ordinance No. 379/2025 (“Ordinance”), in which the antitrust authority designates the liquid fuel market as a priority for CADE in 2025 and 2026 with respect to the promotion of free competition and the repression of anticompetitive practices.

In order to justify its choice, the CADE, in the “whereas” clauses of the Ordinance, in addition to referencing technical analyses and internal studies conducted on the sector, also mentions communications submitted by the Office of the Attorney General (“AGU”) and the Ministry of Mines and Energy (“MME”), which suggest the existence of signs of anticompetitive conduct in the oil and gas market within Brazil’s supply chain.

In this regard, the AGU indicated the existence of possible cases of cartel and market power abuse involving refineries in the Northern Region, as well as companies operating in the LPG distribution chain in the Southern and Southeastern Regions. The MME, in turn, presented an analysis of the disproportionate increase in gasoline and diesel prices throughout the fuel supply chain in Brazil between May 2019 and March 2025 and raised concerns about private refineries allegedly charging significantly higher prices than those practiced by other primary suppliers and above the import parity price itself.

The Ordinance establishes a series of actions involving the General Superintendence (“SG”), the Department of Economic Studies (“DEE”), and CADE’s technical and support areas. In addition, the Ordinance provides for the sharing of CADE’s data with the National Agency of Petroleum, Natural Gas and Biofuels (“ANP”), AGU, MME, the Federal Police (“PF”), the Brazilian Federal Revenue Service (“RFB”), and the State Departments of Finance.

Among the actions to be implemented, we highlight the following:

• Prioritization by the SG of investigations into cartels and collusive practices related to the liquid fuel market;
• Update by the DEE of studies on the sector, particularly the econometric filters for cartel detection, technical notes updates, as well as studies related to competition advocacy initiatives;
• Holding of a public hearing in 2025 aimed at diagnosing competition-related issues in the liquid fuel sector, including a period for receiving contributions from companies representing the production, refining, distribution, and retail segments of the liquid fuel market, among other institutions and professionals; and
• Promotion of an institutional campaign to encourage the use of CADE’s whistleblower platform (“clique denúncia”) and to publicize CADE’s leniency program, with a focus on the liquid fuel market.

Vella Pugliese Buosi e Guidoni Advogados offers specialized consulting services to support companies with matters related to Competition Law and the liquid fuel market. Our team is available to support your organization with the topics mentioned above.