MALDIVES LAW AND PRACTICE Contributed by: Shaaheen Hameed, Hassan Maaz Shareef, Aminath Amathulla, Nazahath Ahmed, Isha Ali Raoof, Aifa Shareef, Noorul Hudha Ahmed and Mohamed Azmee, Premier Chambers LLP
mulated and published by the Ministry within six months from the date on which the Competition Act came into force. However, the Ministry has not published any such criteria to date, leav - ing uncertainty over what it considers an anti- competitive merger either in terms of revenue or market share. 6.2 Merger Control Procedure Unlike other jurisdictions, the existing legal framework for merger control in the Maldives does not mandate notification of mergers to the Minister of Economic Development and Trade or provide an option for voluntary notification of mergers. However, this may change once the necessary regulation for merger control is pub - lished by the Ministry. Where a merger contravenes the Competition Act’s provisions, the Minister of Economic Devel - opment and Trade has the authority to issue an order to amend a merger agreement and levy a fine of between MVR10,000 and MVR100,000. Following the Ministerial Order, the Registrar of Companies reserves the right to deny any ser - vice to the parties involved that could aid the execution of the merger agreement. 6.3 Cartels The Competition Act prohibits business agree - ments or conduct that hinders, limits or dis - torts competitive practices within a market. The Competition Act considers the following types of agreements or conduct to be anti-competitive practices: • price fixing; • market divisions and customer allocations; • intentional limitation in production of goods and development of technology; • refusal to sell or deal with certain parties; and • control of investments.
If the Ministry determines that a business has exploited or abused its dominant position in the market, it has the authority to impose a fine of between MVR10,000 and MVR100,000. The Ministry has not taken any enforcement action against businesses for an anti-compet - itive agreement or practice to date. 6.4 Abuse of Dominant Position The Competition Act assesses whether or not a party holds a dominant position based on: • the nature of the market it is operating in; • its share and power in the market; and • the significant control it has over the market. Actions such as predatory pricing, imposing unfair prices, refusing to deal with certain par - ties, limiting production of goods or develop - ment of technology to the detriment of consum - ers, imposing unnecessary obligations which have no commercial use or are not material to the subject of the contract or imposing differing conditions to trading parties to block their entry or operation in the market could all amount to abuses of a dominant position. If the Ministry determines that a business has abused its dominant position in the market, it may impose a fine of between MVR10,000 and MVR100,000. However, these enforcement powers are yet to be used by the Ministry.
7. Intellectual Property 7.1 Patents
There is currently no patents legislation in the Maldives. There is therefore currently no process
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