On 8 December 2025, the General Superintendence of the Administrative Council for Economic Defense (SG/Cade) in Brazil recommended the conviction of four individuals for participating in an international cartel affecting the automotive safety systems market. The cartel involved products such as airbags, seat belts, and steering wheels—collectively known as Occupant Safety Systems (OSS)—which are designed to protect vehicle occupants in collisions or other hazardous situations.
According to SG/Cade, the individuals and associated companies engaged in coordinated conduct to fix prices, allocate customers, and exchange commercially sensitive information, thereby harming competition in Brazil. The collusive practices reportedly took place between 2005 and 2011 and affected multiple global suppliers of automotive safety components.
The companies implicated include Autoliv, Inc., Takata Corporation, Tokai Rika Co. Ltd., Toyoda Gosei Co., Ltd., and ZF TRW’s Active & Passive Safety Technology Division, among others. The individuals named in the recommendation include Burkhard Karczewski, Christoph Schmitt, Christophe Rivière, Franz-Xaver Weiss, and several additional executives from the participating firms.
The case will now move to the CADE Tribunal, which will appoint a reporting counselor to issue a final decision. If convicted, those responsible may face fines of up to 20% of the amount applied to the company. While the specific monetary value of potential fines has not yet been disclosed, under current estimates, fines could reach hundreds of millions of euros, given the scale of the companies involved and the global impact of the cartel.
SG/Cade’s recommendation underscores its ongoing efforts to combat international collusion in critical industrial sectors and protect competition in markets that directly affect Brazilian consumers.