In an Approved Judgment delivered on 8 December 2025, His Honour Judge Pelling KC of the High Court of Justice, Commercial Court, ruled on a preliminary issue in the complex antitrust case of Viegas, Sanches and Ors v. Cutrale and another [2025] EWHC 3158 (Comm). The claimants, a group of over 1,500 Brazilian orange growers, had alleged that the defendants participated in a cartel which created a monopoly over the orange juice concentrate market. This anticompetitive conduct, they claimed, resulted in artificially depressed orange prices and increased costs, in violation of Brazilian law.
The trial focused exclusively on the preliminary issue of whether the claims were barred by the applicable Brazilian three-year statute of limitations for delictual claims. The core dispute was when the limitation period commenced. The claimants contended that time should only run from the final condemnatory decision of the Administrative Council for Economic Defence (CADE), or the execution of a Cease-and-Desist Agreement. Conversely, the defendants argued the period began much earlier, citing the widespread publicity of the January 2006 “Operation Fanta” (dawn raids) and the subsequent publication of the CADE administrative proceedings notice on 24 February 2006.
Relying on the consistent interpretation of Brazilian law by the Superior Court of Justice (STJ), the Judge concluded that sufficient knowledge to commence a stand-alone claim was reasonably available to the claimants no later than 24 February 2006, or the date they entered their last relevant contract. As the claim forms were not issued until late 2019, well beyond the three-year limit, His Honour Judge Pelling KC ruled that the claims, as currently pleaded, were time-barred and ought to be dismissed.