Recognizing the importance of competition for economic development, the Lusophone Competition Network aims to promote technical cooperation among its members to create and consolidate the foundations of competition systems along the lines of good international practices.
Created with the Declaration of Rio de Janeiro, the Lusophone Competition Network has as members the entities responsible for competition issues in Portuguese-speaking countries: Angola, Brazil, Cape Verde, Guinea Bissau, Mozambique, Portugal, São Tomé e Príncipe, and Timor-Leste.
Cooperation between these entities has progressed through multilateral and bilateral meetings between officials responsible for competition matters.
Within the spirit of cooperation of the Lusophone Competition Network, Technical Cooperation Protocols were held with the Brazilian Authorities for the Defence of Competition which included the Administrative Council for Economic Defence (CADE), the Economic Monitoring Department (SEAE), and the Economic Law Office (SDE); the National Directorate for Commerce of Mozambique, and the Competition Regulatory Authority of Angola.
To promote Lusophone Competition Network activities, the AdC signed a Memorandum of Understanding with UNCTAD. The AdC and UNCTAD have been collaborating in the ambit of the Lusophone Competition Network meetings and in technical cooperation projects which UNCTAD has initiated in Portuguese-speaking countries.
Find out more about the Lusophone Competition Network meetings:
- 2022 – The 8th Meeting of the Lusophone Competition Network, organized by Autoridade Reguladora da Concorrência – ARC Angola, took place on 16 December. Representatives from Angola, Brazil, Cape Verde, Guinea-Bissau, Mozambique, Portugal, São Tomé and Príncipe and East Timor, as well as UNCTAD, took part in the event. During the Meeting, members shared the main activities carried out in 2022 and discussed the relevance of competition policy in the current context. See the agenda [in Portuguese].
- 2021 - The 7th Lusophone Meeting on Competition took place on September 14, bringing together the largest number of competition authorities ever. Representatives from Angola, Brazil, Cape Verde, Guinea-Bissau, Mozambique, Portugal, São Tomé and Príncipe, and East Timor were present. The importance of competition policy for economic recovery was the topic under debate. See the agenda [in Portuguese].
- 2019 - The 6th Lusophone Competition Meeting was held on October 8, 2019 and aimed to discuss future multilateral technical cooperation projects. The meeting took place on the sidelines of the ICN Cartel Workshop (Foz do Iguaçu).
- 2019 - The 5th Lusophone Competition Meeting took place on May 16, 2019, on the sidelines of the ICN (International Competition Network) Annual Conference in Cartagena and featured guest speakers from DG Competition, the European Commission and the OECD (Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development). See the agenda [in Portuguese].
- 2018 - On October 19, 2018, the 4th Lusophone Competition Meeting was held in Lisbon, on the sidelines of the 5th Lisbon Conference on Competition Law and Economics. See the agenda [in Portuguese].
- 2017 - The 3rd Lusophone Competition Meeting, took place during the International Competition Network (ICN) Annual Conference that in 2017 was organized by the AdC, in Porto. See the agenda.
- 2006 - The 2nd Meeting of the Lusophone Competition Network was held on the 29 and 30 May, 2006, where a full roster of the Members of the Network discussed the topics: Competition and economic development; Mitigation of the weight of regulation; Institutional development and Case studies on anti-competitive practices. Representatives at the highest level of the equivalent entities in Angola, Brazil, Cape Verde, Guinea-Bissau, Mozambique, São Tomé and Príncipe, and Timor-Leste took part in the meeting.
- 2004 - On the initiative of the AdC and in co-operation with the Conselho Administrativo de Defesa Económica (CADE) of the Brazilian Ministry of Justice, the first Lusophone Competition Meeting was held in Rio de Janeiro on 28 and 29 June 2004. Representatives of all the Portuguese-speaking countries participated in this meeting, with the exception of Timor and Cape Verde. Based on the declarations of the participating countries, it was then possible to move forward with the approval of the joint Declaration of Rio de Janeiro that founded the Lusophone Competition Network. Read the main topics discussed in this 1st Meeting here [in Portuguese].
