Authors:
Lee Mendelsohn and Amy van Buuren1
I INTRODUCTION
Since the promulgation of the Competition Act, 89 of 1998
('the Competition Act'), and its coming into effect in
September 1999, mergers (defined as the acquisition or
establishment of control by one or more firms over the whole or
part of the business of another firm) that meet the prescribed
monetary thresholds must be notified to and approved by the South
African competition authorities before they may be implemented.
South African merger control has developed in leaps and bounds
in sophistication, and international trends and norms are very
closely ascribed to by the South African competition regulators.
That said, South African merger control is also uniquely South
African, in that analysis of both classic competition issues (the
negative effect of a transaction on competitive conditions weighed
against the efficiencies arising therefrom) and public interest
issues (notably the impact of a
