Revised COMESA Competition Regulations Now In Force

The Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (“COMESA”) has brought the revised COMESA Competition Regulations and Rules (the “Revised Regulations”) into force following adoption by the COMESA Council on 4 December 2025, marking a pivotal shift in the region's competition enforcement landscape. Effective immediately, COMESA's merger control regime is suspensory. In practice, this means that all notifiable mergers must receive prior approval from the COMESA Competition Commission (“CCC”) before implementation. We await further guidance from the CCC on how implementation will unfold in the coming weeks, pending publication of the Revised Regulations and accompanying guidelines.