Two Brazilian subsidiaries of US home appliance maker Whirlpool have agreed a 100 million reais (US$57 million) settlement with Brazil's antitrust tribunal, CADE, for cartel activities.
Embraco and its sister company Brasmotor, which both manufacture compressors used in refrigeration, agreed to the deal on 30 September. Eight company executives will also pay a total of 3 billion reais (US$1.76 million).
"This was the most significant settlement agreement in cartel cases ever at CADE, not only in terms of the amount, but also as this is the first case settled even before the start of the deadline to file a defence," notes one lawyer close to the case.
Aurélio Santos, at Levy & Salomão Advogados, agrees: "This is an important precedent. CADE appears to have achieved noticeable advances in designing a more attractive standard for negotiating settlement in cartel cases, thus abbreviating long, difficult and costly investigations."
Marcelo Calliari of TozziniFreire Advogados says, "Settlements weren't allowed in cartel cases until very recently, and the fact that they rushed to settle shows that companies are starting to take cartel investigations more seriously. It proves Brazil is beginning to enter a bigger league antitrust-wise."
But José Inácio Franceschini of Franceschini e Miranda Advogados expressed surprise that Whirlpool had agreed to settle. "It would seem at first glance more sensible to dispute the charge, especially because the company is certainly risking third-party lawsuits and >
Whirlpool is one of five companies in Brazil accused of colluding to raise prices and exchange business information at a total cost of 1 billion reais to consumers, affecting the markets for refrigerators, freezers, air conditioners, water fountains and industrial cold-storage units. The other companies are the US's Tecumseh, Italy's Appliances Components Company (ACC), Denmark's Danfoss and Japan's Panasonic.
Brazil's Secretariat of Economic Law (SDE) began the investigation after Tecumseh came forward and signed a leniency agreement. The companies' offices in Brazil, US and Europe were targeted in February in dawn raids coordinated between the SDE, the US Department of Justice and the European Commission.
The case against ACC, Danfoss and Panasonic will continue.
Yesterday was national anti-cartel enforcement day in Brazil, part of the Ministry of Justice's campaign to raise national awareness of cartel behaviour and its impact on consumers.
Counsel to Embraco, Brasmotor and Whirlpool
· Trench, Rossi e Watanabe Advogados
Partners Tulio Coelho and Francisco Todorov
Counsel to the Whirlpool executives
· Albino Advogados Associados
Partners Pedro Zanotta and Adriana Mourão and associate Rodrigo Orlandini
Counsel to Panasonic
· Machado, Meyer, Sendacz e Opice Advogados
Partner Tito Amaral de Andrade
(Latin Lawyer 09.10.2009)
(Notícia na Íntegra)