What do competition authority’s decisions reveal about Brazilian antitrust policy? A content analysis perspective

Resumen

This article investigates whether three intellectual traditions in antitrust policy – the Harvard School, the Chicago School, and the neo-Brandeisian Movement – appear in the decision-making of Cade, the Brazilian Competition Authority, between 2015 and 2022. The analysis covers 32 technical opinions justifying the start of ex officio investigations, 489 votes on anticompetitive practices, and 148 merger votes to assess whether Cade’s enforcement reflected a coherent and strategically articulated competition policy. This study uses content analysis to investigate the extent to which these traditions inform Cade’s rulings. In addition to adjudicative outcomes, the study scrutinizes Cade’s start of ex officio proceedings, providing insight into the enforcement priorities of the agency. Our findings indicate that the principles of the Chicago School exert the strongest influence, while Harvard School reasoning continues to inform certain decisions; in turn, evidence of Neo-Brandeisian influence is limited. By identifying the schools of thought shaping Cade’s enforcement patterns, this article contributes to the comparative study of antitrust institutions and provides an in-depth understanding of competition policy development in Brazil.