On Amendments To The Competition Law

On March 6th of the current year the new law 'On Amendments to Some Legislative Acts of the Republic of Kazakhstan on Competition' (hereinafter – the 'Amendments') has been adopted. The Amendments have become effective earlier this week on March 26^th 2013.

Please find below a summary of the main novelties proposed by the Amendments in the filed of competition protection:

• new terms such as 'direct control' and 'indirect control' are introduced by the Amendments;
• the concept of a 'group of entities' is narrowed by the Amendments. The definition of the group of persons now includes persons holding more than 50 percent of the voting shares in the charter capital of a legal entity, while the previous reading of the Law on Competition provided for a wider range of persons holding more than 25% of the voting shares or interests in the charter capital of a legal entity;