INTERFACE BETWEEN THE BRAZILIAN ANTITRUST, ANTI-CORRUPTION, AND CRIMINAL ORGANIZATION LAWS: THE LENIENCY AGREEMENTS.

Since the enactment of the new Anti-corruption Law, the interaction between the antitrust and anti-corruption leniency regimes has attracted the attention of policy makers. More recently, the emergence of Operation Car Wash ("operação lava jato"), one of the biggest corruption scandals of all time, has established a need to more closely analyze the criminal leniency regime under the Criminal Organization Law. Following an introduction, section two of this paper summarizes the recent history of the cooperation between different authorities involved in cartel enforcement. Section three further explores the roles and features of the main authorities discussed in this paper. Section four addresses administrative antitrust, administrative anti-corruption, and criminal infringements related to bid rigging practices. Likewise, section five addresses the main administrative antitrust, administrative and judicial anti-corruption, and criminal penalties that can be imposed by administrative and judicial authorities prosecuting a bid rigging practice. Section six addresses the most significant challenges brought by the interface between administrative antitrust, administrative anti-corruption, and criminal legislation: the issues related to the enforcement of the leniency agreements. The conclusion reinforces the importance of the antitrust, anti-corruption, and criminal authorities working together to reach the best practices that could lead to an optimum enforcement of the three leniency regimes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]