Sergio Bermudes advises Brazilian National Confederation of Commerce on Direct Unconstitutionality Action

Sergio Bermudes Advogados has assisted the CNC (National Confederation of Commerce) on Direct Unconstitutionality Action (ADI) 2,435

The Federal Supreme Court (STF) decided that Rio de Janeiro Law 3.452 / 2001 is unconstitutional. This law granted discounts of 15% to 30% for the elderly in the purchase of medicines in pharmacies and drugstores.

The STF plenary understood that it is impossible for two federated entities to simultaneously edit rules to control the prices of a given economic segment.

The sentence follows the fact that the Union is the regulator of the drug sector. Prices are controlled by the CMED (Medicines Market Regulation Chamber), responsible for establishing profit margins in the sale of medicines by pharmacies and drugstores. In 2002, the Court dismissed the request for an injunction by the same ADI, making the law in force since 2001. Only now, almost 19 years after it came into force, has the law been declared unconstitutional.

“The result is historic because it prevents the existence of double, simultaneous and uncoordinated interventions by different federated entities in the economy in sectors where there is state price control and, in these cases, federal legislation should prevail. The logic already existing in the precedents that declared unconstitutional the discounts imposed by state legislation for the services that are the object of the federal concession contracts follows”.

Sergio Bermudes Advogados team was led by partners André Silveira (pictured left) and Flávio Jardim (pictured right).