KUWAIT Law and Practice Contributed by: Alex Saleh, Asad Ahmad, Khaled Al Makhezeem and Liana Rashid, GLA & Company
• seeks the help of any expert and local or interna - tional companies that are specialised in examining the application or obtains any information from third parties as appropriate. In the event of an objection from a third party, the time to consider and decide on this does not count towards the 90-day period otherwise imposed on the executive director of the Kuwait CPA during their review phase. Following completion of the executive director’s review, a report will be issued to the chairman of the Kuwait CPA containing details of the application, a description of all facts and procedures taken with respect to the application, an evaluation of the appli - cation from both a legal and economic standpoint and a recommendation. The chairman of the Kuwait CPA presents the appli - cation to the Kuwait CPA’s board, who will, in turn, decide on the application within 30 days of the date of the chairman’s presentation. The board may decide to: • approve the economic concentration application; • conditionally approve the economic concentration application; or • reject the economic concentration application, provided that the decision is justified. Once a decision is made, the executive director must inform the stakeholders within 15 days of the date of the board’s decision. The total timeframe for a decision to be rendered from the time an application is properly submitted is esti - mated to be 45-60 days. However, the actual time may vary depending on follow-up requests for additional information, requests for additional time by the execu - tive director or objections raised by third parties. 3.8 Pre-Notification Discussions With Authorities Pre-notification discussions with authorities can be engaged in. Any person who wishes to enter into an economic concentration may request a meeting before submitting an application. There is no particular obligation of confidentiality provided for in the Kuwait
Competition Law. Under Resolution No 40 of 2026, the pre-notification consultation fee is KWD500. 3.9 Requests for Information During the Review Process Requests for information are common and are expect - ed depending on the extent of the application submit - ted. These types of requests will effectively suspend the time otherwise imposed on the Kuwait CPA to process an application. 3.10 Accelerated Procedure There is no formal method for expediting the review of an economic concentration application. 4. Substance of the Review 4.1 Substantive Test When considering an application, the Kuwait CPA considers the following standards. • Maintaining and encouraging effective competition amongst competitors in the market. • Enhancing the interests of consumers with respect to the quality and price of the relevant products. • Encouraging, through competition, the reduction of costs, the development of new products and the facilitation of access to the market for new com - petitors. The executive director, during their review, takes the following elements into account. • Studying the products according to the following: (a) comparing the products subject to the transac - tion with other similar products in the market; and (b) the availability of substitute products to con - sumers. • Determining the possibility of competition within a relevant geographical area with the following standards in mind: (a) the ability of the consumer to move from one geographical area to another; (b) the ability of vendors to make changes based on the movement of purchasers between various geographical areas due to the relative
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