In brief On 28 September 2023, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) has issued Federal Law No. 36 of 2023 (the “New Competition Law”), which has repealed and replaced Federal Law No. 4 of 2012. The New Competition Law signals a new era of enforcement by the UAE Ministry of Economy by providing a functional competition regime through, inter alia: extending a wider scope of application to almost all economic activities; expanding its mandate by prohibiting…
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…
The Government of Saudi Arabia has announced the issuance of the long-awaited Civil Transactions Law (“CTL”), the third of the four laws announced as part of the specialized legislations reform (the others being the Family Law, Evidence Law (both have been issued) and the Criminal law (expected to be issued soon)). The CTL was officially published in the Saudi official gazette on 19 June 2023. The CTL contains 721 articles and marks an important advancement…
On 19 January 2023, the new Companies Law entered into force following the conclusion of the 180-day publication period, enacted by Cabinet Resolution No. 678 dated 29/11/1443H (corresponding to 28/06/2022) and ratified by Royal Decree No. M/132 dated 01/12/1443H (corresponding to 30/06/2022) (“New Companies Law”). The New Companies Law represents the first wholesale revision of the law since 2016 and implements a broad range of changes intended to reflect international practices and foster the growth…
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…