Competition Enforcement In Education: ECA Targets School Uniform Market

The Egyptian Competition Authority (ECA) continues to demonstrate a strong and proactive approach in investigating and enforcing competition law within the education sector, recognizing the sector's vital role for consumers and its direct impact on families across Egypt. On January 4, 2026, the ECA found that 18 schools had engaged in anticompetitive practices in the school uniform market, highlighting its ongoing focus on enforcing Article 8 of Competition Law No. 3 of 2005 and ensuring that dominant players do not restrict choice or inflate prices in markets essential to students and their families.

The investigation was triggered by complaints from parents reported directly to the ECA. After examining these complaints, the ECA's investigation uncovered that several schools had leveraged their position in the school uniform market in a manner amounting to an abuse of dominance.

The ECA's investigation concluded that the schools committed several violations, including wholly or partially preventing the manufacturing, production, and distribution of school uniforms by obliging parents to purchase uniforms from specific outlets only. This was achieved through changing school uniforms for different educational stages, withholding and complicating their specifications, and failing to announce those specifications sufficiently in advance of the school year, contrary to Minister of Education and Technical Education Decree No. 167 of 2023, which requires disclosure at least two months prior. The investigations further discovered that violations also included tying unrelated obligations and products together, such as linking access to educational services to the obligation to purchase uniforms from a designated outlet or requiring uniforms to be purchased only as a complete set without allowing individual items to be bought separately.

During the current year, the ECA has established violations by 45 schools in the school uniform sector, underscoring the importance of this market and its status as one of the ECA's key priorities due to its direct impact on consumers.

The ECA noted that these practices harmed not only parents—by limiting their choice and contributing to overpricing—but also other market competitors, including manufacturers and retailers who were not given sufficient time to produce and distribute the uniforms. This created barriers for new entrants into this market, and ultimately affecting the overall market size.

These practices were found to unduly limit competition, restrict consumer choice, and contribute to higher prices and reduced quality — harming families and disadvantaging other market participants, such as manufacturers and independent retailers, ultimately impairing market entry and expansion opportunities and limiting opportunities for new investors to enter into the market .

This recent investigation in 2026 builds on a series of earlier enforcement actions in the school uniform sector, through which the ECA has repeatedly intervened to address anticompetitive practices affecting parents and suppliers alike. Most recently, on November 8, 2025, the ECA determined that 13 schools violated Egyptian competition law by abusing their dominant position in the school uniform market and restricting the sale of their uniforms to exclusive outlets (for an overview of this investigation, see our client update of December 2025). Additionally, there was an investigation initiated in 2023 in which the ECA determined that four educational establishments violated the Egyptian competition law by abusing their dominance to unduly restrict market access for competitor outlets (for an overview of this investigation, see our client update of 23 September 2023).

This action is part of an expanding portfolio of ECA enforcement in education-related markets and is not limited to the school uniform sector. Over recent years, the ECA's enforcement actions have increasingly targeted anticompetitive practices affecting markets tied to education, including schoolbooks, public tenders, and the supply of school meals. This developing enforcement trend points to a holistic regulatory approach, with the ECA positioning education as a priority sector within its broader competition policy agenda.

The content of this article is intended to provide a general guide to the subject matter. Specialist advice should be sought about your specific circumstances.