Lula sends economic regulation project of big techs to the National Congress

Facing an unfavorable environment in Congress, the government has once again decided to step back from the idea of sending the proposal for content regulation of big techs at this time. The initial idea was to send both texts together. The government assesses that there is little resistance among lawmakers and the big tech companies themselves to the economic regulation project, but the scenario is different regarding the proposal for content regulation. The project mainly targets the giants of Silicon Valley, namely Amazon, Apple, Google, Meta, and Microsoft. The proposal will not target smaller technology companies. The government argues that these practices undermine competitiveness, stifle smaller companies, and ultimately increase costs for end consumers. The text has been prepared by the Ministry of Finance since last year and grants new powers to the Administrative Council for Economic Defense (Cade). The agency will be able to prevent the formation of oligopolies in the markets where big techs operate. The project also foresees the creation of a Digital Markets Superintendence, which will guide the processes and establish a ‘menu of measures’ to be applied to each big tech company in a customized manner.