guia prático do cade - Conselho Administrativo de Defesa Econômica

4 - territorial restrictions and base restrictions on customers5 - exclusive dealings6 - tying sales7 - price discrimination.3. What is a cartel?It is an agreement between economic agents that offer substitute products,so as to try to increase prices and profits by means of market division, agreedresale prices, division of production quotas, control of quantities produced/distributedor of territorial division.4. If a bakery agrees with other bakeries in the neighborhood upon a commonresale price, would this be a cartel?Generally speaking, bakeries are small-sized businesses, what may lead thereader to think they cannot adopt anticompetitive practices. Nevertheless, if therelevant market of product sold at bakeries is geographically limited to a neighborhoodand all bakeries within this neighborhood agree on uniform resaleprices, than they are forming a cartel, and are subject to punishment. Even ifsuch cartel is temporary, since entering the market is easy, there will be restrictionsto competition and damages to consumers.Since a cartel acts as if it is a monopolistic company, the result will be theoffer of minor quantities at higher prices on the relevant market.It is very important to highlight the fact that every case has its particularitiesand should therefore be closely examined in order to establish thefacts. This example and the ones mentioned above are merely illustrative.What really matters is to verify whether the agreement between economicagents aims at generate or may generate the effects provided for in article20 of the Law for the Defense of Competition. Regardless of the form underwhich such conduct manifests itself in people’s lives, what must be repressed isthe conduct that aims at attaining or may attain the effects provided for in theabove-mentioned article 20.5. How should a company that is being forced into a cartel by its competitors react?The enterprise being coerced can (and should) denounce the cartel. With146