Olavo Chinaglia delivered his first press conference as interim president of Brazil’s Council for Economic Defence (CADE) today. As commissioner, he will oversee the critical period before significant changes to Brazil’s antitrust law come into effect on 29 May.

Brazil’s Secretariat of Economic Law (SDE) says that members of two truck transportation associations operating out of the country’s largest port may have used acts of violence – including on at least one occasion throwing Molotov cocktails at rivals – as a way to enforce a cartel for fertiliser shipments.

Two Brazilian shopping comparison websites have filed a complaint with the country’s antitrust enforcers against online search leader Google for allegedly favouring its own product listings in shopping search results.

Sorcha O’Carroll has joined the London office of Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer as an associate in its competition group. O’Carroll moved from McMillan in Toronto.

Brazil’s Council for Economic Defence (CADE) has approved a US$3.2 billion merger between Brazilian airline TAM and Chilean flag carrier LAN – but lawyers say time will tell whether conditions imposed are sufficient to prevent excessive concentration on certain routes serviced by the new company.

Competition specialist Tito Amaral de Andrade, at Machado Meyer Sendacz Opice in São Paulo, has been elected president of Instituto Brasileiro de Estudos de Concorrência (IBRAC), a Brazilian competition association.

Brazil’s new antitrust law has received changes to its merger notification system following controversial vetoes by President Dilma Rousseff.

Competition authorities in four continents are improving leniency programmes and introducing harsher individual penalties to combat cartels, said a panel at the GCR Live Law Leaders Conference in Brussels today. Katy Oglethorpe in Brussels

Chilean domestic airline PAL has withdrawn its appeal before the country’s Supreme Court against the merger of rival Latin American carriers LAN and TAM.

Brazil’s Congress yesterday approved the country’s new competition law. It will be enacted in six months’ time.

Brazil’s Congress has indicated that President Dilma Vana Rousseff will pass the country’s new antitrust law today.

GCR presents the latest competition associate moves from around the world.

Brazil’s Secretariat of Economic Law (SDE) has announced it wants to increase sentences for individuals convicted of cartel offences to equal those levied for offences such as robbery. The proposed amendments to the country’s cartel laws are due to go before Congress for approval.