On 1 November 2023, the Board of the General Authority for Competition (“Authority”) announced that new financial thresholds would apply to determine whether a transaction is reportable to the Authority. By implementing such change, the aim of the Authority is to provide further clarity on the local nexus test required for a transaction to be notifiable to the Authority and to align the Saudi merger control regime further with international standards. This announcement follows the…
In brief The Egyptian Parliament has approved amendments to the Law number 3 of 2005 on the Protection of Competition and the Prohibition of Monopolistic Practices (ECL), introducing for the first time a mandatory pre-merger notification regime in Egypt (“Amendments”). Until now, the ECL had only a post-merger notification system which did not give the Egyptian Competition Authority (ECA) any powers to assess, approve or block a transaction. The Amendments are expected to be published…
The General Authority for Competition (the “Authority”) recently published its latest annual report regarding its activity in 2021. This report shows that since the introduction of the current Competition Law1 (the “Law”) in Saudi Arabia in September 2019, the Authority has strengthened its resources and taken a number of initiatives to raise awareness about the Law and that it has significantly increased its enforcement against violators. This alert offers an overview of the key initiatives and…
Cases involve abuse of dominance relating to retail price maintenance (RPM) and “Most Favoured Nation” (MFN) clauses In brief In two recent cases, the Egyptian Competition Authority (ECA) issued infringement decisions against two dominant companies. In the first case, the ECA established that a company operating in the yeast industry has abused its dominance in a number of ways, including restricting passive sales between distributors and also engaging in retail price maintenance (RPM). In another…
On 31 March 2022, the Ministry of Commerce published for consultation a draft Consumer Protection Law (“Draft Law”) on the Public Consultation Platform, which will close for comments on 15 May 2022. The Draft Law is intended to be administered by a yet to be defined competent governmental authority, presumably a department within the Ministry of Commerce (“Competent Authority”). The scope of the Draft Law is limited to business to consumer (B2C) transactions, as it…