Guidelines outlining how the competition authorities will
calculate penalties for parties who implement notifiable
transactions without approval have been published. Armed with the
methodology, the publication of the Guidelines should serve as a
warning that the competition authorities will be stringently
monitoring future transactions and potentially levying higher fines
for the prior implementation offence than in previous years.
On 1 April 2019, the Guidelines for the determination of
administrative penalties for failure to notify mergers and
implementation of mergers contrary to the Competition Act No. 89 if
1998, as amended (GN 473, GG 42337) ("the
Guidelines") became effective. The purpose of the
Guidelines is to provide 'transparency, certainty and
objectivity' in to the manner in which the competition
authorities will calculate penalties to be levied when the merger
control provisions of the Competition Act 89 of 1998
("the Act") are contravened.
