Introduction

The Board of Directors of the Saudi General Authority for Competition (“GAC”), in its latest meeting no. 84 dated 23 October 2023, announced new requirements for an economic concentration’s eligibility for notification before the GAC (the “Decision”).[1] This follows the GAC’s Board of Directors decision dated 23/08/ (corresponding to 15/03/2023) to increase the filing threshold stipulated in Article 12(1) of the Saudi Competition Law[2] from SAR 100 million to SAR 200 million (“Financial Threshold”).

The Decision now details the following three requirements, which must all be fulfilled, for an economic concentration to be notifiable under the Saudi Competition Law:

First, the total sales of the parties to the economic concentration must exceed the Financial Threshold of SAR 200 million.

Second, of the Financial Threshold, the annual sales of the target entity in an economic concentration must exceed SAR 40 million.

Third, the combined total sales realised locally (in the territory of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia) by the parties to the economic concertation must exceed SAR 40 million.

Prior to the implementation of these new financial thresholds, KSA was a no-minimum financial threshold jurisdiction. Meaning if the global financial thresholds were met, there was no minimum threshold needed to be met in Saudi to trigger a merger control filing. The GLA competition team foresees more attraction of foreign-to-foreign and foreign-element transactions in KSA as a result of the aforementioned amendments that allow for more fair competition and a market-oriented merger control regime implementation by the GAC.  

How GLA can help?

With our exceptional Anti-trust and Competition practice, which has been leading the way in the region, and our great relationships with the regulators, GLA provides top tier legal services by properly assessing transactions under the competition regimes and successfully navigating the client through an economic concentration filing with ease.  Please contact Alex Saleh, Managing Partner (alex.saleh@glaco.com) and Asad Ahmad, Head of Antitrust and Competition Practice (asad.ahmad@glaco.com) if you have any questions.

[1] Available at X (formerly Twitter): https://twitter.com/SaudiGAC/status/1719756819772411942

[2] promulgated by Royal Decree No. M/75 dated 29/06/1440H (corresponding to 06/03/2019G) and entered into force on 24/01/1441H (corresponding to 23/09/2019G).

Authors: Asad Ahmad, Head of Antitrust & Competition Practice, Maha El-Meihy, Legal Director, and Khaled Al-Khashab, Associate.