CADE to seek details from U.S. authorities on alleged anticompetitive practices
The Administrative Council for Economic Defense (CADE), Brazil’s antitrust authority, is expected to contact the U.S. Department of Justice (DoJ) to assess whether a potential cartel case involving meatpackers should be examined in Brazil, Valor has learned.
The CADE’s General Superintendence received a formal request from Senator Izalci Lucas (Liberal Party, PL, of Federal District) calling for an investigation into the “potential impacts on the Brazilian economy of anticompetitive conduct carried out abroad by economic agents in the meatpacking sector.”
Following the request, according to a source, the CADE will ask the DoJ what exactly is under investigation in the United States before proceeding with any analysis in Brazil.
The letter, seen by Valor, says President Donald Trump ordered the DoJ to launch investigations into potential anticompetitive conduct by companies owned by foreign nationals. The alleged practices include cartelization, price-fixing agreements, and price manipulation.
Trump asked the DoJ to investigate meat processors, arguing that meatpackers, many of them foreign-controlled, may be artificially inflating meat prices. He has said it is suspicious that cattle prices have fallen while beef prices remain high.
At the time of the accusations, the Meat Institute, which represents more than 350 companies in North America, said meatpackers had been operating at a loss for more than a year and that market transactions are transparent. According to the institute, despite high beef prices, producers have been losing money due to record cattle prices. The sector expects this situation to persist into 2026.
“As is well known, Brazilian companies play a leading role in the protein market,”
the senator wrote in his request. He noted that JBS is the largest meat producer in the United States, while National Beef, owned by Marfrig (now MBRF), is the fourth largest and the most profitable.
The senator also recalled that the CADE approved Minerva’s acquisition of assets from Marfrig in 2024, but imposed conditions, “demonstrating the competitive concerns arising from the sector.” The transaction involved the sale of 11 cattle slaughtering and deboning plants in Brazil.
The CADE attached conditions to the approval, including changes to the non-compete clause. It also ruled that Marfrig could increase slaughtering and deboning capacity at a plant in Mato Grosso, while Minerva would be required to divest a unit in Goiás.
According to Eric Hadmann Jasper, a partner at HD Advogados and a professor at the Brazilian Institute of Teaching, Development and Research (IDP), a request from a member of Congress is always given greater weight by the CADE. However, Brazil’s Competition Law stipulates that only submissions from congressional committees automatically move directly to the administrative inquiry stage.
The lawyer noted that this is not the first time the sector has been targeted by congressional complaints. In mid-2005, the Brazilian Confederation of Agriculture (CNA) and the Chamber of Deputies’ Agriculture and Supply Committee filed a complaint against the industry, resulting in one of the CADE’s first-ever cease-and-desist agreements.
Source: Valor International
