The legislation seeks to merge two distinct regulatory regimes under a single statute — a move that could redefine how Brazil approaches both traditional and digital markets.
Brazil’s proposed Digital Markets bill would mark a shift in competition policy, creating what one councilor for the country's economic competition authority called an “interesting legal experiment.” The legislation seeks to merge two distinct regulatory regimes under a single statute — a move that could redefine how Brazil approaches both traditional and digital markets.
Under the proposal, conventional antitrust rules would continue to govern traditional sectors, while a new framework would address the complexities of digital platforms. Victor Fernandes, a councilor for the Administrative Council for Economic Defense, or CADE, highlighted the novelty of this approach at an event* Monday saying, “for the very first time we will have two very different legal regimes housed by the very same legal statute.”
This dual system, he explained, reflects a broader vision of competition policy that goes beyond the traditional focus on market power and consumer welfare.
Fernandes warned that the new framework could influence traditional enforcement, saying it is “not so easy to anticipate whether or not we can see some spillover effects in terms of this new ideology of digital competition policy eventually influencing the more traditional antitrust approach that we have been handling over the last three decades in Brazil.”
The bill still faces an uncertain approval process in Congress, where competing priorities could delay or reshape its provisions.
The councilor said he expects that the economic agents will be involved in the discussion, but mentioned at the same event that “we cannot expect that in the near future, companies will still run the very same business model across all the jurisdictions.”
This stance aligns with CADE’s trend of developing homegrown precedents rather than importing foreign models.
*Enforcement in Digital Markets, Ibrac, Webinar, Brazil, Oct. 20, 2025.
Source: MLex
