EGYPT Law and Practice Contributed by: Alex Saleh, Asad Ahmad, Khaled al-Khashab and Mounir Hany, GLA & Company
GLA & Company Hyde Park HPO/B3-1/119 &120 New Cairo 5th Settlement
Cairo Egypt Tel: +965 669 55516/+971 54 997 4040 Email: alex.saleh@glaco.com Web: www.glaco.com
1. Legislation and Enforcing Authorities 1.1 Merger Control Legislation The Arab Republic of Egypt is committed to fostering a competitive economic environment that does not restrict, prevent or damage the freedom of competi - tion. Law No 3 of 2005 on the Protection of Com - petition and Prohibition of Monopolistic Practice (the “Egyptian Competition Law” or the “ECL”) was therefore enacted. The Egyptian Competition Law has since been amended four times (in 2008, 2010, 2014 and, most recently, with the introduction of the ex- ante merger control regime through Law No 175 of 2022 (the “Amendments”)). On 4 April 2024, the Egyptian Prime Minister issued Decree No 1120 of 2024 to implement the Amend - ments issued to the ECL, which made significant revisions to the executive regulations to the Egyptian Competition Law (the “Executive Regulations”). The Executive Regulations introduced the long-awaited merger control framework and established “Chapter Nine: Examining Economic Concentration”, providing the legal foundation for pre-transaction notifications and reviews. The Egyptian Competition Authority (the “ECA”) has also published guidelines and FAQs (the “Guidelines”) to help parties navigate the newly established ex ante merger control regime. On 22 April 2026, Egypt’s House of Representatives gave final approval to the most significant overhaul of
competition legislation in years, amending the ECL. While the new amendments are yet to be officially issued through Egypt’s official Gazette, the amend - ments to the ECL introduce amendments to the finan - cial thresholds for mandatory merger control review have been doubled with the domestic notifications are now required when combined annual turnover or assets exceed EGP2.5 billion and at least two parties surpass EGP500 million, while worldwide thresholds are set at EGP15 billion combined and EGP500 mil - lion for the Egyptian target company. Penalties have also been substantially increased, with competition- restricting behaviours like price-fixing can lead to fines of up to 15% of relevant product revenues or a fixed EGP700 million, while unlawful concentrations can attract fines of up to 10% of combined annual rev - enues, with an absolute cap of 10% of the infringing party’s total turnover. 1.2 Legislation Relating to Particular Sectors Other local legislation should be taken into account for specific sectors. This includes the following. • The National Telecommunications Regulatory Authority (the “NTRA”) applies Articles 2, 4, 24 and 25 of the Telecommunications Law, Law No 10 of 2003, to regulate competition and to ensure economic freedom in the sector. The NTRA indi - rectly examines and detects mergers by reviewing the licence requirements of any given operator. The NTRA will assess and evaluate any merger on the basis of its impact on competition. In the event that the NTRA foresees or detects a violation of law, it
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