EGYPT Law and Practice Contributed by: Alex Saleh, Asad Ahmad, Khaled al-Khashab and Mounir Hany, GLA & Company
The concerned persons may lodge a grievance against the block decision within 30 days from the date of notification to the concerned persons. 3.9 Requests for Information During the Review Process Parties involved may engage in pre-notification dis - cussions with ECA officials regarding the “economic concentration” before formally submitting the notifi - cation file, should they have any questions. Howev - er, these discussions are informal and have no legal effect. Any inquiries concerning the impact of the “economic concentration” on the market will not be discussed in Requests for information are common and expected, depending on the application submitted. Requests will effectively suspend the time otherwise imposed by the ECA to process an application. The ECA will initially review the provided notification file and will notify the submitting party within five days of receipt of the submission whether it is complete. However, there is no indication of a specific timeframe for completing the notification form before the ECA. The review period will not commence unless the ECA provides the submitting party with a receipt confirming the completion of the notification file. Simplified Procedures Simplified procedures are applied to “economic con - centrations” that are unlikely to restrict the freedom of competition in the market(s). The “economic concentrations” subject to the simpli - fied procedures are as follows. • The persons concerned with the “economic concentration” meet the domestic notification thresholds stated in Article 19 bis (a) of the Egyp - tian Competition Law, if the annual turnover or the value of assets in Egypt of the persons concerned with the “economic concentration” combined do not exceed EGP2 billion for the latest year in the last audited consolidated financial statements. the pre-notification discussions. 3.10 Accelerated Procedure
• The persons concerned with the “economic con - centration” meet the worldwide notification thresh - olds stated in Article 19 bis (b) of the Egyptian Competition Law, if the annual turnover in Egypt of the target does not exceed EGP500 million for the latest year in the last audited consolidated financial statements. • Establishing or acquiring a joint venture that car - ries out an independent and permanent economic activity outside of Egypt. • Establishing or acquiring a joint venture that car - ries out an independent and permanent economic activity in markets that are not horizontally or verti - cally related or otherwise related to the markets in which the parent companies operate. • A conglomerate of “economic concentrations” between persons operating in markets that are not horizontally or vertically related or otherwise related to each other. • Acquisition of sole “control” over one or more per - sons after the acquiring person or persons exer - cised joint “control” over the same person. Under Article 19 bis (b) of the Egyptian Competition Law and Article 54 of the Executive Regulations, an “economic concentration” will be prohibited if it results in a substantial lessening, restriction or harm to com - petition. The ECA evaluates the competitive impact of a transaction based on the following key factors: • the structure of the relevant market(s), including the level of actual or potential competition from domestic and international players that could affect the market; • the financial and economic strength of the con - cerned persons compared to existing and potential competitors; • the available substitutes for suppliers, customers and consumers and their ability to access produc - tion resources or relevant markets and the patterns of supply and demand of the relevant products; • the barriers to entry and expansion in the relevant markets; 4. Substance of the Review 4.1 Substantive Test
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