Ayres Britto returns to the market and stumbles on the track.
In a sudden return to practicing law, former Supreme Court Chief Justice Carlos Ayres Britto is preparing an opinion defending the indefensible: the argument that restricting competition in airport auctions stimulates competition; the party most interested in the project is the Odebrecht group, headed by contractor Marcelo Odebrecht, which failed to win previous auctions and would like to enter this billion-dollar market without the inconvenient presence of competitors; Ayres Britto gave them a helping hand.
247 - After synchronizing the trial of Criminal Action 470 with the 2012 municipal elections and writing a controversial preface for the book "Mensalão" by journalist Merval Pereira, the former president of the Supreme Federal Court, Carlos Ayres Britto, returned to practicing law – and, once again, embroiled in controversy. Britto prepared an opinion in which he defends the indefensible: the thesis that restricting competition stimulates competition.
It's a contradiction in itself, but Britto found arguments to sell his opinion, related to the upcoming airport auctions, which involve the Galeão terminal in Rio de Janeiro and the Confins terminal in Minas Gerais.
Placed out for public consultation, the tender was launched with a manufacturing defect (or with excessive influence from private interests). It stipulates that the groups that won the first auctions (in Brasília, Campinas, and Guarulhos) will not be able to participate in the next ones, under the argument that this will stimulate competition between airports. This makes as much sense as imagining a passenger dissatisfied with Brasília airport deciding to take a flight from Belo Horizonte.
Obviously, airports are almost always natural monopolies and serve entire regions. Therefore, whoever conducts the auction, in this case the federal government, should be interested in having as many competitors as possible – even to fetch the highest possible price.
However, groups defeated in the first auctions, especially Odebrecht, led by contractor Marcelo Odebrecht, would like to win the next ones without the inconvenient presence of competitors. And this is an issue that deeply divides the government. While some factions argue that the bidding rules should remain as they are, helping to promote an auction without competition, others advocate for competition.
It is in this context that Ayres Britto's opinion is situated. And he chose the wrong side.
Below is information published in the Radar column regarding Britto's opinion:
Fight in the hangar
Gleisi: Airports under debate
It's in the hands of Gleisi Hoffmann An opinion from former Supreme Court President Ayres de Britto argues that, in the privatization auctions of Galeão and Confins airports, the exclusion of consortia that won previous bids is legally and constitutionally valid.
In his opinion, Ayres de Britto warns of the risk of economic concentration and the threat to free competition.
That is also the government's position. But the concessionaires in Guarulhos are fighting against it.