International experiences have already considered the exchange of information between competitors as a behavior which has the potential to limit competition, even without the presence of a cartel. In addition to it, certain decisions of the Cade (the Brazilian board of antitrust), as in \u201cSteel Cartel\u201d, sentenced in 1999, demonstrate the possibility of accepting an illicit action from indirect evidence.<\/p>\n
Using this acceptance of indirect evidence in order to prove anticompetitive behaviors, particularly in cartels, it is for companies and associations to adopt extreme caution when there is exchange of information, through benchmarking or other means. It is important to note that the practice itself is not prohibited, but requires attention, especially with regards to defining what information to share and in what situation.<\/p>\n
Felipe Ribeiro Duarte: Member of the Commission for Competition and Economic Regulation of the Minas Gerais Bar Association and lawyer at the law firm Chenut Oliveira Santiago.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
[:]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
[:en]Because of entrepreneurial dynamism, companies frequently seek to improve their management tools in order to improve their performance and reduce their costs. Therefore, market agents make use of several methodologies, business practices and tools in order to achieve the maximization of their business activity. Thus, one of the business practices that, by itself, is little debated in the competition field, stands out. It is the exchange of information between competitors, which, at least with regards to its essence, can be beneficial and make the market more transparent. The importance of transparency of the market is such that the theoretical model of perfect competition considers, among other aspects, the existence of a market with several buyers and several sellers, homogeneous products and where there is transparency and symmetry of information to all market agents. Furthermore, it is possible to understand that sharing information improves business practice, allocates goods efficiently, reduces costs and helps with market competitiveness. One of the forms of information exchange used by the agents is benchmarking. In general, benchmarking is the comparison of methods from other companies, in order to identify the best practices of an organization with similar organizations, pointing some possible improvements in the activity of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":915,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[27],"tags":[],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n
