BURKINA FASO Law and Practice Contributed by: Bobson Coulibaly, Pierre Yanogo, Oumarou Cisse and Diana Woba, SCP Yanogo Bobson
clothing, imported cosmetics and perfumes, passenger vehicles, household appliances and electronics, alcohol, tobacco and other luxury goods. Non-WAEMU countries are those that bear the full effect of the CET, so the highest duties apply to products from: • the European Union (EU) (excluding specific preferences); • China; • India; • Türkiye; • the USA; • the UAE; and • Malaysia, Thailand and Vietnam (for manufac - tured or agro-industrial products). Mergers and acquisitions in Burkina Faso are only subject to notification if they constitute an anti-competitive practice such as a concentra - tion. Article 19 of Act 016-2017/AN of 27 April 2017 on the organisation of competition in Burkina Faso (the “Competition Act”) states that a con - centration is any situation resulting from any act, in whatever form, involving the transfer of ownership or use of all or part of the assets of an undertaking, the object or effect of which is to enable an undertaking or group of undertak - ings to directly or indirectly exercise, a decisive influence over one or more other undertakings. Concentration occurs in particular through merg - ers, takeovers, joint ventures and any other form of horizontal, vertical or heterogeneous control. 6. Competition Law 6.1 Merger Control Notification
The Competition Act considers mergers that cre - ate or strengthen a dominant position, held by one or more undertakings, with the consequence of significantly hindering effective competition on the market as anti-competitive practices. For this reason, Article 18 of the Competition Act requires mergers to be notified to the National Commission on Competition and Consumption and to be subject to control in line with com - munity provisions on competition, specifically Regulation 02/2002/CM/UEMOA on anti-com - petitive practices and Regulation 03/2002/CM/ UEMOA on procedures applicable to cartels and abuses of dominant position within the WAEMU. 6.2 Merger Control Procedure The main merger notification stages in Burkina Faso include the submission of a notification to the National Commission on Competition and Consumption. The National Commission on Competition and Consumption then noti - fies the WAEMU Commission, which then has six months to make a decision. After this six- month period, it is considered to have implicitly adopted a negative clearance decision under Regulation 03/2002/CM/UEMOA. 6.3 Cartels In terms of competition, in addition to the Com - petition Act, Regulation 02/2002/CM/UEMOA of 23 May 2002, relating to anti-competitive practices within WAEMU regulates competi - tion. Annex VIII of the Bangui Agreement (Act of 2015) establishes an African Intellectual Property Organisation (OAPI), which deals with protection against unfair competition. The Competition Act includes provisions related to anti-competitive agreements, abuses of domi - nant positions and public aid distorting competi - tion. The provisions of the Competition Act apply
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