Electronics retailer gets billion-real fine in tax probe

São Paulo's state government has fined tech retailer Fast Shop BRL 1.04 billion (USD 212 million), the largest penalty ever imposed under Brazil's 2013 Anticorruption Law. The company must pay in full within 30 days, with no option to spread the cost. Fast Shop has called the new corporate penalty disproportionate and said it will appeal.

The fine is part of a sweeping investigation into how major Brazilian retailers allegedly paid for faster, larger refunds of ICMS, the state-level tax on goods and services, and how a circle of state auditors built side careers brokering that access.

Between 2021 and 2025, Fast Shop collected BRL 1.6 billion in ICMS rebates. Investigators say BRL 1.04 billion of that was undue, secured through bribes paid to public auditors. In September, two Fast Shop partners and one executive acknowledged the retailer had paid BRL 422 million in bribes, settling their personal cases with roughly BRL 100 million in fines.