Cade, Brazil’s anti-trust authority, demanded local steel association IABr to pay BRL 271,300 ($87,117) in fines following a sham litigation case in which the local steel institute reportedly delayed and prevented non-affiliated companies or competing institutions from selling steel.
Under the terms of the deal, IABr agreed to stop such conduct, which was labeled by Cade as “anti-competitive,” and drop 28 lawsuits pending in Brazilian courts.
Late in 2016, the General Superintendent of Brazil’s antitrust authority, Cade, sent a request to the regulator’s court asking local steel association IABr to be condemned for using its petition rights for anti-competitive purposes.
In May last year, Cade was investigating IABr for those same reasons. At the time, Abrifa, the local association of the steel importing and producing companies, accused IABr of filing requests to prevent already established companies in Brazil to import rebar.
“As a result, imported rebar shipments were being held at the ports while inspections were conducted, causing countless costs to the importers and avoiding those products to be sold in the country,” Cade said.