Arab Competition Network Poised to Increase Inter-agency Cooperation

The Arab Competition Network held their third annual forum in Riyadh on 23 May 2023. The forum specifically emphasized the need for closer cooperation and more effective communication among their members. If these goals were implemented effectively the region’s competition authorities could substantially increase their capabilities to enforce their antitrust and merger control regimes.

The Arab Competition Network was established in 2022 by competition authorities from the Middle East and North Africa (MENA). Its purpose is to promote and enhance regional cooperation among MENA competition authorities and providing them with support in developing and enforcing their merger control and antitrust regimes.

While the Arab Competition Network held some educational workshop since its inception in 2022, it has to date not lead to a noticeable increase in cooperation among competition authorities in the region. This year’s forum picked up on this issue and highlighted the need for regional integration. In their closing declaration the members of the Arab Completion Network formulated the following goals for the organization and its members.

• The Arab Competition Network shall foster effective communication among its members to promote cooperation on common concerns and enhance coordination on competition related issues.

• Given the importance of cooperating on competition law research and enforcement strategies the Arab Competition Network shall establish specialized working groups that will address specific areas of competition law and enforcement such as (1) horizontal and vertical agreements, (2) abuse of dominance, and (3) merger control.

• To enhance the capabilities of the individual members the Arab Competition Network shall organize and hold trainings and capabilities building programs tailored to the specific needs of the different MENA region competition authorities.

• Furthermore, members proposed to establish a shared electronic database within the Arab Competition Network to facilitate the exchange of materials on competition policy and enforcement activities among the members.

It remains to be seen which of these goals the Arab Competition Network will implement and how dedicated the MENA competition authorities’ support for the network’s work will be going forward. Past activity of the network and support of its members have been sluggish. However, this year’s forum as well as its closing declaration did convey more agency of the Arab Coemption Network.

For companies doing business in the MENA region the emphasis on cooperation in competition law and enforcement matters as well as the proposal of a shared database will be most relevant. To date MENA competition authorities have communicated only on a very rudimentary level. For instance, despite signing an MoU providing for cooperation and information exchange in 2022, the Saudi General Competition Authority (GAC) and the Kuwaiti Competition Protection Authority (CPA), have to date not started exchanging information on ongoing investigations or merger reviews. If the Arab Competition Network was to develop in a channel through which MENA competition authorities actively exchanged information about ongoing activities, the region’s authorities would gain a powerful tool for enforcing their antitrust and merger control regimes. A centralized database could support exchange of information and, thereby, further increase investigative capabilities of the MENA competition authorities. Should the Arab Competition Network be successful with these goals, companies doing business in the MENA region would have to revisit their approach to merger control and antitrust in the region.