Middle East: Antitrust/Competition Law

The ancillary restraints doctrine, originally developed by the European Commission, validates restraints objectively necessary to implement legitimate transactions with neutral or positive competitive effects. This analysis examines how Egypt, Morocco, Jordan, and Tunisia approach ancillary restraints in economic concentrations, revealing significant jurisdictional variations in regulatory frameworks and enforcement practices across the Levant and North Africa region.

The UAE Ministry of Economy and Tourism is developing a National Competition Platform that will use artificial intelligence to transform competition enforcement, potentially reducing merger review timelines to 15 days while automating antitrust investigations and exemption procedures.

Licensing agreements occupy a structurally ambiguous position in merger control. They sit between asset acquisitions and ordinary commercial contracts.