By: Vitor Ferrari and Ivan Kubala

On April 4, 2022, federal deputy Hugo Leal (PSD/RJ) presented Bill No. 815/2022, which regulates the reorganization of cooperative societies, amending provisions of Law No. 5,764/71. On May 18, 2022, the Bill was referred to the Committee on Economic Development, Industry, Commerce and Services (CDEICS), where it remains to this date, and in 5 discussion sessions no amendments were presented to the bill. The bill must then go to the CCJ, Committee on Constitution, Justice and Citizenship, where, if approved, it will go to the National Congress, and subsequently to the president of the republic, if this legislative house refers it.

Its main proposal is to enable cooperative societies to avail themselves of judicial and extrajudicial recovery, as regulated by Law No. 11,101/05. This will provide a wider range of possibilities for these societies, which currently only have the automatic dissolution of the society with the sale of its assets as a way to pay their debts to creditors.

If the Bill comes into force, cooperatives registered with the OCB (Organization of Brazilian Cooperatives) will be able to maintain their activities, employees and members while paying their debts, with a future restructuring, as is the case with companies. It is worth noting that the Bill will not benefit cooperatives to the detriment of other types of legal entities provided for in the Brazilian legal system, since both judicial and extrajudicial recovery are already provided for in these cases. This bill will only bring equality to the Brazilian business community.

However, not all types of cooperatives will be covered. Credit cooperatives are not included in the bill, since they are regulated by a specific law, Complementary Law No. 130/2009, and this bill deals with changes to Law No. 5,764/71.

The congressman's justification is that his Bill will ensure that Article 174, §2 of the Federal Constitution is complied with, since it determines that the law “shall support and stimulate cooperativism”. However, in Hugo Leal's view, this does not occur, because “in scenarios of economic and financial crisis, these organizations do not have regulations that, at the same time, allow them to overcome instability and preserve the characteristics of cooperativism” and therefore they are at a competitive disadvantage and unprotected.

With the collaboration of Luis Felipe Simões