Brazil courts reshape major corporate and labor cases

In mid‑July 2026 Brazil's Supreme Federal Court (STF) ended the nationwide suspension of "pejotização" cases, allowing labor courts to resume evidence collection, hearings and rulings. The judgment, authored by Minister Gilmar Mendes, reinstated ordinary judicial competence over contractual disputes involving legal entities, while the substantive merits await a final STF ruling on Tema 1.389. A week later the STF’s jurisprudence prompted a procedural shift in a major corruption probe. The 13ª Vara Federal in Curitiba dismissed the Lava Jato indictment against six Petrobras‑related defendants, citing an STF ruling that evidence derived from the Odebrecht leniency agreement was inadmissible. The dismissal is not an acquittal but a significant setback for the investigation. At the end of July, Minister Alexandre de Moraes suspended the execution of a court‑ordered debt of R$492.8 million against Petrobras, finding that the Rio de Janeiro state court had applied the IPCA index and a 1% monthly interest rate instead of the Selic rate mandated by Supreme Court precedent. The recalculated amount, based on Selic, would be R$237.8 million, which Petrobras says has already been deposited. In a separate labor matter, Brazil's Regional Labor Court upheld a decision declaring Transpetro's 2018 Career and Remuneration Plan unconstitutional, ordering the company to revert affected employees to the 2007 classification system and pay the resulting salary differences. The ruling remains subject to appeal. At the end of July the judicial recess concluded and the STF, Superior Court of Justice, the 5th Federal Regional Court and the 7th Labor Regional Court reconvened in early August. Their agendas include 14 high‑risk fiscal actions totalling roughly R$534.6 billion and a STF review of the CARF “vote of quality” on 26 August.