ABSTRACT
In Brazil, even in the big cities, with large number of competitors, gas station owners and their unions are frequent targets of investigations of cartel practices. In the Secretariat of Economic Rights (Secretaria de Direito Econômico – SDE) of the Ministry of Justice, reports of cartel behavior in the fuel retail market are responsible for one-third of the total complaints received, with current inquiries of approximately 130 processes of cartel practices by gas stations (Ministério da Justiça website). Since 2006, SDE has incorporated an economic methodology, developed by the SEAE (Secretaria de Acompanhamento Econômico), to identify if there is a cartel acting in a specific market. It takes a closer look only after observing: (a) the evolution over time of the retail's margins at the county level; (b) the correlation between the retailer's margins and the variability of the retailer's prices; and (c) the correlation between the county and state margins.
