Practice Areas Anti-Trust & Competition

Our Lawyers Represent Companies in Anti-Trust and Competition Matters Throughout the GCC and Greater MENA Region

Doing business in the Middle East presents various challenges for a variety of different reasons. Among them, the laws, rules, and regulations governing anti-trust and competition vary—often significantly—between countries, including the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) States.  This is due to the fact that most of the competition laws and the authorities that administer them are relatively young and untested. These are exciting times in the competition arena as the regulators find their footing on how to administer these regulations throughout the region.

As a result, both local and global companies seeking to do business in the Middle East need to rely on experienced local counsel. At GLA & Co, our lawyers have significant experience handling antitrust and competition matters. We represent companies in Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, the UAE, and the other GCC States, providing competition advice and filings in the context of M&A transactions, joint ventures between strategic partners, and all types of both horizontal and vertical transactions.

Local Compliance Counsel for Anti-Trust & Competition Matters 

Our job on deals is to get the same cleared with the local Competition Authority.  We have deep relationships with the regulators in the various jurisdictions and have become successful in securing no objections from these bodies to clear these deals. Our lawyers are intimately familiar with the governing sources of authority, and we routinely work with the relevant agencies, departments, and committees on behalf of our clients. This includes (but is not limited to) securing necessary approvals from:

• Saudi General Authority for Competition;
• Kuwait Competition Protection Agency;
• UAE Ministry of Economy (Department of Competition); and
• UAE Competition Regulation Committee.

Speak with a MENA Anti-Trust & Competition Lawyer at GLA & Co

If your company is entering into any type of transaction in the MENA region that may trigger a competition violation whether, through an M&A deal, joint venture partnership or simply appointing a new distributorship in a jurisdiction and you want to under the competition regime beforehand to assess your risk, we encourage you to contact us for more information. Please contact us online to schedule an appointment today.