Correios pays fine of R$ 21.9 million for unfair competition, Cade decides

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The Administrative Council for Economic Defense (Cade) approved a Cessation Commitment Agreement (TCC) with Correios in a process that investigates anti-competitive conduct in the market for the provision of postal services. With this Wednesday's agreement (30/01), Correios will have to pay a fine of R$21.9 million, which will be paid to the Diffuse Rights Fund.


OAB/DF
OAB/DF Complaint says that Correios harmed competitors to expand its monopoly on letter delivery
The investigation was opened B2B Lead following a complaint from the São Paulo Cargo Transport Companies Union (Setcesp). The entity accuses the state-owned company of adopting measures to harm competitors in the delivery market, in which it does not have a monopoly. According to the union, the intention was to also monopolize the delivery market. By constitutional rule, only the Post Office can deliver letters in Brazil.

According to Setcesp, Correios was excluding competitors from the market through repeated legal actions without objective basis, which would constitute the practice known as sham litigation . Furthermore, according to Setcesp, the company would be charging higher prices for customers that compete with it in the market, while non-competing customers would be paying lower prices for the same product.

In April 2018, CADE's General Superintendence recommended condemning ECT for its practices. At the time, the agency analyzed the results of more than 200 legal proceedings involving the company and discussing the extension of the postal monopoly. Correios lost the majority of actions relating to products such as tax bills and water and electricity invoices printed on the spot.

Still according to the investigation, there are indications that Correios was preventing or hindering the infrastructure by other companies. In the e-commerce delivery segment and in services aimed at the financial sector, it was found that Correios refused to work with some competitors, releasing its services only to companies that do not compete with the state-owned company.



In the agreement, Correios also committed to creating a competition compliance program with preventive and monitoring procedures to avoid the practice of conduct that is harmful to competition. The process will be suspended until full compliance with the obligations set out in the term. With information from Cade’s Press Office.