The Moroccan Competition Council (MCC) published its activities report for 2024. The report outlines the MCC’s enforcement activities, merger reviews, investigations, and advisory work. While merger control remains the primary focus of the MCC, there have been notable investigations and enforcement action concerning behavioral antitrust violations.
Merger control remained the MCC’s primary focus. The MCC published a total of 174 decisions and opinions, of which 162 were decisions on economic concentrations. The remainder covered contentious and advisory matters. Among the 162 concentration‑related decisions, 155 transactions were authorized and 4 were declared not notifiable. The report notes that the MCC achieved a near 90 percent liquidation ratio in merger file processing during the year. Only one case proceeded to a full in‑depth review, and another was permitted to proceed under a derogation from the suspensive effect of notification rules, consistent with the statutory regime.
The report outlined the MCC’s priorities in assessing economic concentrations. The MCC was primarily focused on risks posed by market foreclosure, excessive concentration, and barriers to entry. The MCC in their report stressed that where they found indications that the transaction could pose such risks, they have and will going forward conduct thorough reviews.
The MCC also actively pursued investigations into domestic and foreign‑to‑foreign transactions for gun jumping and failure to notify. While the 2024 activity report confirms that several ex officio investigations were opened and that enforcement in this area remained a priority, it does not publish a separate numerical breakdown of these cases. Hence, the exact number of investigations and fines in 2024 remains unclear.
Furthermore, the MCC, for the first time, imposed sanctions for failure to comply with remedies imposed in connection with merger control clearance. The case concerned the Veolia merger with Suez that was cleared by the MCC on the condition that certain Suez assets, including the Moroccan utility operator Lydec, be divested to a specified investor consortium. Instead, Veolia acquired and temporarily retained Lydec itself; thereby, violating the approved divestment scheme and effectively creating a new, unnotified concentration. The MCC found this to violate both the conditions of its prior conditional clearance and Veolia’s merger‑control obligations for the new acquisition. They ordered Veolia either to implement the original divestment structure or revert to the pre‑transaction situation within 30 days. Veolia then sought a settlement, which the MCC accepted in return for a transactional fine of MAD 100 million (approx. USD 10.95 million) and a commitment to notify a new operation, leading to an agreement to sell all of Lydec shares held by Veolia to the regional multiservices company SRM Casablanca‑Settat. This acquisition bestowed exclusive control over Lydec on SRM and was notified to the MCC on 4 July 2024 and cleared on 29 July 2024.
Beyond merger remedies, the MCC also deployed its investigative powers to enforce competition law in behavioral antitrust contexts. In October 2024, the MCC conducted its first ever unannounced dawn raid authorized by the public prosecutor, a milestone in on‑site investigatory capacity. The raid was carried out as part of an MCC investigation into alleged anti‑competitive practices by the delivery platform Glovo in Morocco’s digital food delivery market, including concerns over abuse of dominant position, discriminatory contractual terms, and economic dependence of partner restaurants. The MCC issued formal objections and, following adversarial proceedings, ultimately approved a transactional settlement with Glovo in mid‑2025 that included binding commitments: Glovo agreed to remove exclusivity clauses, amend unfavorable contractual terms and implement measures to ensure open competition among delivery platforms.
In parallel, the MCC maintained a sustained program of investigation and adjudication in its contentious docket. The MCC ruled on nine contentious cases during 2024, reflecting its activation of both complaint driven and self‑initiated enforcement authorities. Among these, the most prominent non merger matter involved the electronic payments sector, where the MCC investigated alleged anti‑competitive practices by the Interbank Electronic Banking Center (CMI) following a complaint by NAPS SA. In its decision, the MCC identified competition concerns tied to CMI’s conduct in the payments market and imposed binding commitments on CMI and its shareholder banks. The effect of the ruling reorganized the competitive landscape by dismantling CMI’s acquiring business and facilitating access for new payment service providers.
In its advisory mandate in 2024, the MCC did not open contentious infringement proceedings in these sectors but instead issued non-binding opinions addressed to public authorities. In the electricity sector, the MCC examined the financial and structural difficulties of the National Office of Electricity and Drinking Water (ONEE), identifying constraints linked to its vertically integrated structure, administratively fixed tariffs and legacy obligations, and recommended a gradual opening of certain activities to private participation, clearer functional unbundling, and rationalization of ONEE’s debt and tariff structure regulation, and called for comprehensive modernization of market infrastructure and the applicable legal framework. In the animal feed sector, the MCC observed high concentration among a limited number of producers, heavy dependence on imported raw materials and obsolete technical and commercial rules, and recommended measures to encourage local production, update regulation and strengthen value chains to improve farmers’ access to competitive sources of supply. These opinions illustrate the MCC’s dual role as both enforcer and policy advisor.
The MCC also expanded its cooperation with authorities in Morocco and internationally. They sought to strengthen cooperation with the Moroccan judiciary through joint training initiatives with the Higher Judicial Council. These trainings aimed at expanding judicial capacity in applying competition law.
International engagement continued through hosting a high-level conference on “Neutrality of Competition and Market Access” and active participation in the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development, COMESA, and Arab Competition Network activities.
The MCC’s 2024 enforcement record shows a decisive strengthening of its posture. Merger control remained the MCC’s primary focus. Look back enforcement against prior transactions not notified to the MCC that the MCC discovered in connection with notifications made, remained a strong source of enforcement. Still, the MCC also initiated investigations into gun jumping and failure to notify on their own initiative.
Business active in Morocco or contemplating transactions with connection to Morocco are well advised to carefully assess their obligations under Moroccan competition law. Transactions not notified to the MCC in the past will continue to pose a considerable issue as well. Not only because parties may face sanctions for their failure to make notifications. Also, because prior violations discovered in connection with a filing will substantially delay clearance.
AUTHOR
Ikram Ouddida
