Cooperation Agreements between Competitors to Promote Sustainable Development Measures: What Should Cade's Role Be?

Many companies may consider themselves unable to advance even further in the sustainability agenda - especially at a time of such economic sensitivity - for fear that joint actions involving competing companies may come to be questioned by authorities such as CADE, given the volumes of penalties involved in case of condemnation for coordinated actions involving restrictions on the offer of products and services and exchange of competitively sensitive information.In a scenario of severe climate change in which business cooperation can be much more effective than isolated actions, it seems desirable that authorities such as CADE make an effort to make it clear, through the launch of a new guide, for example, that it would accept (consider lawful) agreements between competitors that (I) restrict, but do not completely eliminate competition, (II) are indispensable (or at least necessary and limited) for the achievement of sustainability goals; (III) generate clear benefits for the protection of the environment and (IV) allow a relevant part of the resulting benefits to be passed on to consumers.