On August 20, 2025, the Brazilian Federal Court of Appeals upheld the annulment of the 2013 decision issued by CADE (Brazil’s antitrust authority) against SKF do Brasil, which had imposed sanctions in an administrative proceeding concerning the practice of setting minimum resale prices.
This landmark decision highlights TozziniFreire’s excellence and unwavering commitment to defending its clients’ interests.
According to CADE, the conduct was deemed “unlawful by object”, carrying a presumption of anticompetitive effects. The authority further asserted that this assessment framework had allegedly remained consistent in its case law for over a decade.
The company, in turn, emphasized that the administrative decision had improperly shifted the burden of proof, requiring the company to demonstrate the absence of anticompetitive effects only at the final stage of the proceeding. It also pointed out that in at least 17 prior cases, CADE itself had applied the rule of reason – reinforcing that the SKF case was an isolated exception, inconsistent with prevailing national jurisprudence at the time.
The appellate court’s ruling upheld the annulment of CADE’s decision, concluding that applying an “object-based” approach – combined with shifting the burden of proof only at the decision stage – constituted a retroactive application that violated the principles of legality, legal certainty, and legitimate expectations.
SKF’s defense was led by TozziniFreire’s Antitrust Litigation practice, widely recognized for its technical excellence and composed of highly renowned specialists in the field.
