25.1 The Soy Moratorium and the Supreme Court
On 12/08/2026, ruling on constitutional challenges 7,774 (Mato Grosso) and 7,775 (Rondônia), with Justice Flávio Dino as rapporteur, Brazil's Federal Supreme Court:
- upheld the validity of the Soy Moratorium — an industry agreement barring the purchase of soy from areas deforested in the Amazon after 2008 — holding that companies may, in the exercise of economic freedom, adopt stricter environmental criteria without that amounting to an antitrust offence, and ordered the discontinuation of proceedings premised on the agreement being unlawful (by 7 votes to 3);
- declared constitutional the state laws restricting tax incentives for companies taking part in private environmental agreements (by 9 votes to 1), subject to the principle of tax anteriority and to case law on conditional exemptions already granted;
- made clear that specific competition investigations may continue before the competent bodies.
What this means for the EUDR: the Moratorium (Amazon only, 2008 reference date) and the EUDR (every biome with forest, 2020 cut-off date) are different and complementary instruments. Complying with the Moratorium is not enough for the EUDR — in the Cerrado above all — but the ruling strengthens the legal certainty of private purchasing criteria that are stricter than the law. On the other hand, upholding the state laws creates a tax cost for signatory companies in Mato Grosso and Rondônia, which has to be weighed in the origination strategy.
25.2 Public traceability platforms
| Initiative | What it is | Usefulness for the EUDR |
|---|---|---|
| Selo Verde | A platform developed with the Federal University of Minas Gerais, launched in Pará in 2021 and adopted or being rolled out in other states (Minas Gerais, Acre, Espírito Santo, Tocantins, Mato Grosso do Sul). It brings together the CAR, PRODES, animal transit permits, embargoes, overlaps with protected areas, indigenous and quilombola lands, and the slave-labour register | Evidence of legality and of the absence of deforestation per property; cited by the Commission in COM(2026) 191. Limitations: it depends on the quality of the CAR, and state coverage is uneven |
| SICAR / CAR | The mandatory environmental registry of rural properties, with a self-declared georeferenced polygon | The basis for identifying the property; it requires verification, being self-declared |
| SIGEF / INCRA | Certification of the georeferencing of rural properties | Evidence of boundaries and of land use rights |
| PRODES and DETER (INPE) | Official satellite monitoring of deforestation in the Amazon and the Cerrado | The national reference for deforestation by year |
| MapBiomas | Annual land cover and land use maps and validated deforestation alerts | Historical land use analysis and checking of post-2020 alerts |
| Agro Brasil + Sustentável (Ministry of Agriculture) | A Ministry of Agriculture platform bringing together producers' socio-environmental compliance information | Documentary support; its fit with the Article 9 requirements needs assessing |
| National Plan for Individual Identification of Cattle and Buffalo (Ministry of Agriculture) | Individual identification of the herd, being phased in | Cattle traceability (not applicable to soy, but relevant for feed) |
25.3 Brazil's position and the Mercosur–EU agreement
Brazil remains classified as standard risk. With the trade part of the Mercosur–EU agreement applying provisionally since 01/05/2026, the tariff reduction makes the European market more attractive but does not change the EUDR. In practice the competitive edge shifts to the ability to deliver verifiable compliance, and not price alone.