A federal judge in Brazil has suspended part of the Lula government's new rules for meal and food vouchers, in a provisional ruling that restores the previous system for the country's biggest voucher operators.

On 9 November 2026, Judge Frederico Botelho de Barros Viana of the Federal Court in the Federal District granted a preliminary injunction halting several provisions of a decree governing the sector. The decision applies only to companies in the Associação Brasileira das Empresas de Benefícios ao Trabalhador (ABBT), the trade body for the leading operators.

For those companies, the ruling temporarily restores the previous rules of the Programa de Alimentação do Trabalhador (PAT), the worker food programme, until there is a definitive judgment in the case.

What the ruling suspends

The injunction suspends several elements of the decree whose rules began to take effect on 7 November 2026. Among them are the cap of 3.6% on merchant discount rates charged to establishments such as restaurants and supermarkets, and the 2% ceiling on interchange fees.

It also suspends the maximum deadline of 15 days for passing on voucher payments to merchants, along with the deadlines for adapting to the new requirements.

The firms covered include Alelo, Pluxee, Ticket, VR and ValeShop, identified as some of the largest brands in the benefits segment. With the decision, those companies can temporarily maintain their existing business models, fees and payment timelines set in prior contracts.

The federal government and the Ministry of Labor and Employment must refrain from applying penalties, opening or continuing sanctioning procedures, or imposing operational restrictions on the covered companies based solely on the suspended provisions.

What stays in force

While several economic restrictions were set aside, the injunction explicitly preserves the requirement for interoperability between voucher card networks. That obligation, established in law, aims to ensure that payment terminals accept cards from different voucher operators, so benefits can be used regardless of the brand of the card.

Reports from supermarket, restaurant and payment sectors had indicated that, despite the legal deadline, meal and food voucher cards were still not accepted on all enabled terminals. The maintained interoperability rule seeks to reduce cases in which a restaurant, supermarket or snack bar accepts vouchers but not a specific brand.

The Ministry of Labor and Employment argues that it is up to the companies themselves to make the necessary technical and operational adjustments, while its role is limited to regulation and oversight of the sector. Companies represented by ABBT, including Ticket, Pluxee, VR and Alelo, have cited difficulties finalising integration and have requested clearer operational rules for the system.

Why the judge intervened

The judge considered there were indications that the executive branch exceeded its regulatory authority by imposing economic restrictions through a decree without sufficient legal backing in PAT legislation.

The federal government has been ordered to be notified urgently and must present its defence, while the case will also be sent to the Federal Prosecution Service.

What happens next

The injunction is provisional and may be contested by the federal government as the legal dispute progresses. Until a final judgment, the covered companies operate under the old PAT rules on fees and settlement times, while the interoperability obligation applies across the sector.

The ruling is the latest court challenge to the Lula administration's attempt to reshape a market used by millions of Brazilian workers to pay for meals and groceries, and it leaves the commercial terms between voucher operators and merchants in legal dispute.