Africa is undergoing significant changes in antitrust regimes throughout the continent. The regulatory landscape is shifting rapidly with countries either significantly amending their competition laws or proposing new laws...more
The Egyptian merger control regime will enter into force on 1 June 2024. In anticipation of this, the Egyptian Competition Authority has published the relevant notification forms, as well as detailed guidelines and Q&As to...more
The Egyptian pre-closing merger control regime will go into full effect on 1 June 2024. The Egyptian Competition Law was amended in December 2022 to introduce a new pre-closing merger control regime, but its enforcement was...more
The General Authority for Competition imposed significant fines against two companies for failing to submit a merger control filing for an economic concentration that meets the notification thresholds. The fines come on the...more
The United Arab Emirates is the latest country in the Middle East to overhaul its competition regime. On December 29, 2023, a new competition law comes into effect, including a new merger control regime that can be triggered...more
Saudi Arabia's General Authority for Competition recently announced key changes to its merger control notification thresholds, adding a new local nexus test and a new minimum turnover threshold for the acquired entity. This...more
White & Case Global Antitrust Merger StatPak (WAMS)—the first real-time clearinghouse for global merger notification data—has analyzed merger notifications in reporting jurisdictions around the first half of calendar year...more
9/28/2023
/ Acquisitions ,
Competition ,
Competition Authorities ,
EU ,
Global Dealmaking ,
Merger Controls ,
Mergers ,
OECD ,
Popular ,
Pre-Merger Filing Requirements ,
UK
Morocco has enacted amendments to its competition law that will have significant impacts on its merger control regime. The amendments include increasing the minimum turnover thresholds for merger control filings, introducing...more
On 29 March 2023, Saudi Arabia's antitrust regulator increased the minimum turnover threshold for merger control filings from 100 million to 200 million Saudi Riyals, which should reduce the number of unnecessary...more
The tidal wave of antitrust activity throughout the Middle East & North Africa is expected to continue rising in 2023, as several jurisdictions across the region have started to amend their competition laws, introduce new...more
1/30/2023
/ Acquisitions ,
Africa ,
Antitrust Provisions ,
Competition ,
Cross-Border ,
Egypt ,
Enforcement Actions ,
Jordan ,
Kuwait ,
Lebanon ,
Legislative Amendments ,
Merger Controls ,
Mergers ,
Middle East ,
Morocco ,
Notification Requirements ,
Saudi Arabia
Australia, Brazil, Saudi Arabia, and Turkey See Significant Surge in Merger Filing Activity; US and EU Merger Filing Activity is Down Compared to 2021's Record Levels, But Still Above Historical Levels -
White & Case...more
12/20/2022
/ Acquisitions ,
Antitrust Division ,
Australia ,
Biden Administration ,
Brazil ,
Competition ,
EU ,
EU Horizontal Safeguard Regulation (HSR) ,
European Commission ,
Investigations ,
Merger Controls ,
Mergers ,
Pre-Merger Filing Requirements ,
Russia ,
Saudi Arabia ,
Turkey ,
Ukraine
Egypt is in the final stages of amending its Competition Law, which will require transaction parties to obtain merger control clearance prior to closing. Once they come into effect, the amendments will overhaul the current...more
...Key Highlights -
According to WAMS data, US merger control filing activity has cooled off: H1 2022 merger filing activity is down 23 percent versus H1 2021. However, US HSR filings in H1 2022 are 47 percent above the...more
7/19/2022
/ Acquisitions ,
Austria ,
Brazil ,
Department of Justice (DOJ) ,
EU ,
European Commission ,
European Merger Control Regulation ,
Federal Trade Commission (FTC) ,
Germany ,
Merger Controls ,
Mergers
The Government of Kuwait has recently amended its competition law to include for the first time a pre-merger notification regime based on turnover thresholds. Kuwait's Competition Protection Agency has started to apply the...more
The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia’s General Authority for Competition (the “GAC”) has been ramping up its merger control activities and recently—at least initially—blocked its first transaction, signaling plans for more active...more
Egypt is getting closer to adopting a new merger control regime that would transform the system from a post-closing to a pre-closing filing regime. The Egyptian Council of Ministers has approved a draft proposal to amend...more
The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia's new competition regime has gone into effect with potentially significant implications for businesses which are active in the Kingdom and those considering transactions with a Saudi component. The...more
11/12/2019
/ Abuse of Dominance ,
Acquisitions ,
Anti-Competitive ,
Commodities ,
Competition Authorities ,
Criminal Penalties ,
Extraterritoriality Rules ,
Fines ,
Horizontal Agreements ,
Infringement ,
Merger Controls ,
Mergers ,
Multinationals ,
Pre-Merger Filing Requirements ,
Premerger Notifications ,
Price-Fixing ,
Sales & Distribution Agreements ,
Saudi Arabia ,
Vertical Agreement
Recent merger enforcement activities by the Egyptian Competition Authority ("ECA") raise warning signs for businesses operating in Egypt. The ECA has been turning to allegations of anticompetitive conduct to intervene in...more