SAUDI ARABIA Law and Practice Contributed by: Alex Saleh, Asad Ahmad, Omar Halbouni and Shahad Al-Humaidani, GLA & Company
6. Ancillary Restraints and Related Transactions 6.1 Clearance Decisions and Separate Notifications Clearance decisions will only cover competition issues. 7. Third-Party Rights, Confidentiality and Cross-Border Co-Operation 7.1 Third-Party Rights Relevant third parties could be involved in the review process by the applicant. They could be included in the application submission or by the GAC, which may require their input. Third parties have a right to request an interview or make a claim as part of a specific eco - nomic concentration investigation. The GAC may elicit information from third parties by conducting a survey. The case team may discuss its interim assessment with third parties in order to identify and seek to resolve any unresolved issues. The team may present its assessment or part of it, to third parties for their opinions, while taking into account the need to obtain objective, impartial and substantiated opinions. The third parties’ interests in confidentiality will be preserved throughout the assessment and investiga - tion process. No third-party documents will be shared with others, except in accordance with the procedures outlined in the guidelines. Where a GAC document to be released during interim consultations contains information that is confidential to a third party, the GAC will prepare a public version of that document that redacts any confidential information. The parties whose confidential information is to be redacted will be given an opportunity to comment on the redaction. 7.2 Contacting Third Parties See 7.1 Third-Party Rights . 7.3 Confidentiality The KSA Competition Law states that members of the board of directors and GAC employees must maintain the confidentiality of information, records, data, files and documents (collectively, “information”) obtained
from the economic concentration parties or other entities in the course of collecting evidence or con - ducting investigations. This information may not be passed to other parties without the approval of the board of directors, where the board’s approval has been recorded in the meeting minutes or the governor has approved it in the following cases. • With the consent of the party providing the infor - mation. • For submission of the information to judicial and quasi-judicial bodies. • For the purposes of exchanging views and opin - ions with international competition authorities concerned with the review process, where the eco - nomic concentration parties have been notified of the GAC’s intention to disclose the information and provided that the international competition author - ity receiving the information will take the necessary legal measures to protect the confidentiality of the information. 7.4 Co-Operation With Other Jurisdictions Where an economic concentration is also being reviewed by competition authorities in other coun - tries, including cases where the possibility of reme - dies has been raised in those countries, the GAC will seek, where possible and reasonable, to consult and co-ordinate with the competition authorities in those countries. This consultation and coordination are for the purpose of seeking consistency where feasible and appropriate, including in relation to remedies. Where appropriate, the GAC will seek confidentiality waivers from economic concentration parties. These will allow the GAC to exchange confidential informa - tion relating to the economic concentration with the relevant foreign competition authorities. The GAC expects economic concentration parties to give it the same notice of economic concentrations and any potential remedies offered as the parties give to the foreign competition authorities and normally requires submissions to be lodged with it and the foreign com - petition authorities simultaneously.
535 CHAMBERS.COM
Powered by FlippingBook