Click this link to the Guide: Competition Law Middle East 2026

Publication Date: September 2026

Overview

Competition Law in the Middle East in 2026 is the most comprehensive and up-to-date analysis of merger control practice across the GCC, Egypt, and Iraq available today. Spanning eight jurisdictions, it goes beyond statutory frameworks to reveal how competition authorities are actually exercising their powers – from enforcement priorities and review timelines to procedural tendencies and filing strategies that shape real outcomes for transaction parties.

Drawing on exclusive statistical data from competition authorities across eight jurisdictions and GLA & Company’s unparalleled experience advising on merger control filings throughout the region, this report delivers something no other publication has: an evidence-based, practitioner-focused assessment of how regulators are actually operating in 2026. It maps filing volumes, review timelines, enforcement patterns, conditional clearances, foreign participation rates, and sectoral trends – giving practitioners the operational intelligence they need to navigate merger control across the Middle East with confidence.

What the Report Covers

The report delivers actionable intelligence on how each jurisdiction’s merger control regime operates in practice, including:

• The UAE’s competition regime is now fully operational – Cabinet Resolution No. 59 of 2026 has completed the regulatory architecture, filing fees have been implemented for the first time as of August 2026, and the Ministry is developing an AI-powered National Competition Platform targeting 15-day review timelines, positioning the UAE to become one of the fastest merger clearance regimes globally.
• Kuwait’s threshold recalibration under Board Resolution No. 32 of 2026 – increasing individual sales thresholds by 200% and combined thresholds by 300% – evidence of a regime now sophisticated enough to calibrate its own rules based on enforcement experience, alongside 62 Board approvals in FY 2025–2026 with 72.6% foreign entity involvement.
• Saudi Arabia’s position as the region’s most active jurisdiction – the GAC processed 187 applications in H1 2026 alone, representing over SAR 1.15 trillion in declared deal value, with 69% of filings involving foreign entities and average review times of just 3.8 days, making it one of the fastest clearance processes in the world.
• Egypt’s rapidly maturing ex-ante merger review regime – including dedicated filing procedures, a simplified track for qualifying concentrations, and increasingly rigorous substantive assessment – with practical insight into the ECA’s iterative review approach and what it means for filing timelines.
• Iraq’s landmark emergence on the merger control map – the February 2026 Guidelines represent the first structured procedural framework for Iraqi merger control, and the report examines what this means in practice for transactions with Iraqi market exposure.
• The landmark Constitutional Court rulings in Kuwait striking down key CPA penalty provisions, successfully argued by GLA & Company.

The critical regional trend reshaping jurisdictional analysis: local nexus is replacing physical presence, with 78.2% of Saudi notifications in 2024 involving foreign entities – a paradigm shift that is redefining when and where filing obligations arise across the region.

Why It Matters

The Middle East’s merger control landscape has been transformed. Competition authorities across the GCC, Egypt, and Iraq now treat merger clearance as a standard condition precedent for completing cross-border transactions – and they are backing that expectation with real enforcement. The UAE’s regime is fully operational, Saudi Arabia is processing over 400 applications annually with remarkable speed, Kuwait is demonstrating a willingness to impose meaningful conditions and financial penalties, and Iraq has taken its first concrete steps toward implementing merger control. For practitioners, the message is unmistakable: no Middle Eastern jurisdiction can be treated as peripheral any longer.

This report equips in-house counsel, M&A practitioners, investors, and policy professionals with the practical intelligence that matters most: how competition authorities across the Middle East actually exercise their jurisdiction — the enforcement patterns, procedural realities, and regulatory tendencies that determine outcomes. It is, quite simply, the most current and complete resource available for anyone navigating merger control in the region today.

About the Author

This report is authored by Asad Ahmad, Partner at GLA & Company, who built the firm’s Antitrust & Competition practice from inception into one of the most sought-after competition practices in the Middle East. His client roster spans global private equity firms, sovereign wealth funds, Fortune 500 multinationals, and major energy and logistics companies – entrusting him with merger control strategy on transactions valued at up to USD 11.4 billion. Asad has secured clearance from every major competition authority across the GCC and Egypt. His influence extends beyond transactional work; he was consulted directly by the Kuwait CPA and Ministry of Commerce to help develop the merger control threshold framework that became Board Resolution No. 32 of 2026. A contributing author to the Chambers & Partners Global Practice Guides on Merger Control across four consecutive editions and The Legal 500 Country Comparative Guides, and a Committee Member of the International Bar Association’s Antitrust Section, Asad is an annual attendee at the ABA’s Annual Antitrust Law Spring Meetings in Washington, D.C. and is a nominee for the Antitrust Writing Awards. Promoted to Partner effective January 1, 2026, and recognized as a Rising Star by The Law MEA and IFLR1000, he represents a generation of practitioners who have grown alongside the region’s competition regimes – and, in many cases, helped shape them.