The Saudi Minister of Commerce approved the new Ultimate Beneficial Ownership Rules (UBO Rules), which will come into effect on 3 April 2025.

Since the Kuwaiti legislator revised the country's competition law in 2021, the Competition Protection Authority (CPA) issued several fines for behavioral antitrust violations.

The ECOWAS Regional Competition Authority (ERCA) conducted a nine-country study on e-commerce and digital finance, examining competition, consumer protection, regulatory gaps, and market conditions.

The COMESA Consumer and Competition Commission has introduced new guidelines addressing expedited merger review procedures, comfort letters, and advisory opinions. These procedural enhancements aim to improve predictability and efficiency in the COMESA merger control regime, offering businesses clearer pathways for notification requirements and review processes across member states.

On May 23, 2024, the Egyptian Competition Authority (ECA) hosted a discussion to clarify Egypt's new pre-closing notification merger control regime.

Competition enforcers in the MENA region have continued to deepen their institutional ties through new bilateral agreements and multilateral initiatives.

In late 2025 the Egyptian Competition Authority (ECA) for the second time granted conditional clearance for Ritter Holding AG's acquisition of OC Oerlikon...

The Egyptian Competition Authority (ECA) has shown an increased interest in resale price maintenance (RPM) clauses over recent years.

On June 13th 2023, the Saudi Council of Ministers approved the Kingdom's new Civil Transaction Law, marking a significant shift from Sharia law to a codified legal system. The law took effect on June 19th 2023, following a grace period of six months...

On 4 December 2025, the COMESA Council of Ministers adopted the COMESA Competition and Consumer Protection Regulations, 2025, which repealed the old regime effective 5 December 2025.

In December 2023, the UAE legislator enacted a new Competition Law), which introduced—among other changes—the concept of turnover based notification thresholds.

At the beginning of December, the UAE legislator issued Federal Decree-Law 20/2025, amending key provisions of Federal Decree-Law 32/2021 on Commercial Companies.

In December 2023, the Moroccan Competition Council issued updated merger guidelines. Central to these guidelines was the introduction of a—be it rudimentary—local nexus test.

Two bodies of law govern exclusivity in Kuwaiti distribution and agency arrangements, creating a complex interplay between contractual freedom and competition regulation. While the Commercial Agency Law abolished mandatory exclusivity to promote market access, the Competition Law places significant limits on how parties may structure their relationships, prohibiting arrangements that restrict competition. Understanding this tension—and how termination protections may inadvertently create anti-competit

Administered by the ECOWAS Regional Competition Authority (ERCA) ECOWAS introduced a supranational merger control regime in late 2024.

Egypt has entered a Macro-Financial Assistance arrangement with the European Union worth up to EUR 4 billion, contingent on implementing structural and economic reforms with a strong focus on competition law enforcement.

In February 2026, the Iraqi Competition and Antitrust Council (CAC) issued their Guideline on Mergers and Restrictive Commercial Practices.

On 13 January 2026, the COMESA Competition and Consumer Commission (CCCC) issued Practice Note Number 1 of 2026 (Practice Note), providing guidance on the operation of the new regime.

The UAE's new Executive Regulations to the Competition Law introduce significant clarifications on predatory pricing, establishing that such conduct may be prohibited independent of market dominance. The regulations provide structured cost benchmarks for assessment, distinguishing between pricing below average variable cost and pricing between variable and total costs, while outlining factors authorities will consider when evaluating anticompetitive intent and commercial justifications.

The UAE's competition regime has undergone a significant transformation with Cabinet Resolution No. 59 of 2026, introducing Executive Regulations to Federal Decree-Law No. 36 of 2023. These regulations establish a detailed procedural framework for obtaining individual exemptions and implementing block exemptions, while moving the assessment of dominance beyond purely market share-based approaches to require broader economic analysis of market power.