The latest draft keeps the focus on the biggest tech platforms while refining enforcement rules.
As Brazil advances an ex ante proposal to regulate digital markets, Victor Oliveira Fernandes, national secretary of the Digital Rights Secretariat (Sedigi), said discussion surrounding the draft legislation has become “quite mature” at this point, while stressing it also is an original framework.
This week, federal deputy Aliel Machado of the Green Party (PV) submitted a final report adding adjustments to the proposal created by the federal government. Bill 4675/25 would expand the powers of the Administrative Council for Economic Defense (CADE) to oversee digital markets, particularly those of Big Tech, through creation of a dedicated Superintendency tasked with identifying and addressing potential harms to competition.
Fernandes, a former CADE councilor and an expert in the field, said Brazil has already assessed international initiatives, such as the European Union’s Digital Markets Act, and followed their implementation to help develop an authentic framework of its own.
“The Brazilian proposal is trying to avoid some of the pitfalls of the Digital Markets Act's enforcement strategy,” Fernandes said at a webinar*. “Brazil is in a good position to engage in dialogue and to put forward a new framework that is both original and informed by the experiences and challenges encountered elsewhere.”
Machado’s new version of the draft brings key modifications, such as cutting the designation period for economic agents from 10 years to six years and allowing decisions taken by the competition regulator to be reviewed after two years.
The scope for potentially supervising tech firms with global revenue above 50 billion reais ($9.7 billion) or national revenue above 5 billion reais ($974 million), as set out in the original text, remained untouched. However, the updated draft added various parameters, including those operating in more than one multi-sided market, as well as market power associated with network effects.
Based on those proposed thresholds, only a small group of companies could be subject to deeper scrutiny by CADE, including the US Big Five: Apple, Alphabet, Amazon, Meta Platforms* and Microsoft. Tech firms subject to the new regime would be required to maintain an office in Brazil, keep their contact information up to date and register legal representatives with CADE.
Apple, Google probes
Camila Cabral Pires Alves, a CADE councilor, argued that Brazil has built a strong track record in overseeing digital markets even without a specific regulatory framework. She pointed to recent cases involving Apple’s App Store and Google News.
In the first case, CADE’s Tribunal approved a settlement with Apple in December 2025 under which the App Store would open the iOS ecosystem to third-party app marketplaces and alternative payment processing options. In Google’s case, the authority overturned in April 2026 a recommendation by its Superintendence to dismiss the probe, and moved forward with an investigation into potential violations of the economic order related to the use of journalistic snippets and AI Overviews.
Alves defended the use of preventive measures — an interim injunction aimed at preventing immediate harm during an ongoing probe— imposed by the Superintendence against companies operating in digital markets.
“We understand that, in some cases, it is not possible to wait until the end of an investigation. These measures are not being used solely as a procedural tool, but as a way to preserve a certain degree of contestability while an investigation is ongoing, because time matters,”
Alves said.
CADE’s settlement with Apple will remain in force for three years, while the in-depth probe into Google News is still in its early stages.
Urgency to vote
Bill 4675/25 still needs to be voted on by Congress before it can be approved. There is urgency to discuss the proposal before the legislative recess, which begins July 18, although no date has been set for a vote.
Machado said on Tuesday he has been in touch with fellow members of Congress in an effort to bring forward a vote on the bill before the general elections in October.
“This issue is not about freedom of expression or penalties for content. It is an economic issue.”
The congressman added that the absence of an economic regulatory framework for digital markets has left Brazil lagging behind the rest of the world.
“It is necessary for that analysis to move forward in order to protect both consumers and businesses,”
Machado said.
The proposal was drafted by the Ministry of Finance in late 2025, following nearly two years of debate involving government officials, private-sector representatives, academics and other stakeholders. Its goals include reducing barriers to entry, protecting the competitive process and promoting freedom of choice.
*banned and designated as extremist in Russia
Source: MLex
