MAURITIUS Law and Practice Contributed by: Sameer K Tegally, Sonia Xavier and Ashvan Luckraz, Venture Law
an investigation before going ahead with the merger, to avoid the costs of subsequently hav - ing to reverse the merger. The Act currently pro - vides the possibility for any one of the enter - prises that intends to be in a merger situation to apply to the CCM for guidance as to whether the proposed merger situation is likely to result in a substantial lessening of competition within any market for goods or services. An applica - tion for guidance usually contains the details laid down in the Competition Commission Rules of Procedure 2009. 6.2 Merger Control Procedure Applications for guidance in relation to merger notifications are made by completing and filing a form known as “Form 1” with the CCM. Form 1 requires detailed information on the merger situation to be submitted to the CCM and this includes: • the full name and address of the joint rep - resentative of the merger parties (where appointed) in a joint application or the full name and address of all merger parties where a joint representative is not appointed; • the nature of the merger, such as whether it is an anticipated merger, an acquisition of sole or joint control, a full-function joint venture, or a contract or other means of conferring direct or indirect control; • the value of the transaction; ie, the purchase price or the value of all the assets involved, depending on the circumstances; and • for each of the merger parties, the area of activity and turnover worldwide and in Mauri - tius for the financial year, and the parts of the business subject to the merger. Prior to the lodging of the merger notification with the CCM, parties are encouraged to carry out pre-notification consultations with the CCM,
as the latter may refuse to accept an application if it is incomplete, not accompanied by the rel - evant supporting documents, not substantially in the prescribed form or not in compliance with the Act. Pre-notification consultations with the CCM are usually carried out promptly, subject to the availability of the parties, and do not affect the timeframe for the assessment of the merger notification once it is submitted to the CCM. Upon receipt of the complete merger notifica - tion, the CCM will conduct a preliminary assess - ment to determine whether there are reasonable grounds to believe that the merger situation results in, or is likely to result in, a substan- tial lessening of competition. The preliminary assessment may be completed within 30 work - ing days, depending on the nature and complex - ity of the merger situation. In the affirmative, par - ties are informed of these concerns within 30 working days and an in-depth assessment is triggered. Otherwise, if the preliminary assess - ment demonstrates no substantial lessening of competition, the parties are informed according - ly and the matter is closed. On the other hand, in-depth assessments are usually carried out by the CCM over a period of six months. Where the commissioners of the CCM deter - mine, after review, that the creation of a merger situation has led, or is likely to lead, to a sub- stantial lessening of competition, they may give the enterprise such directions as they consider necessary, reasonable and practicable to (i) rem - edy, mitigate or prevent the substantial lessen - ing of competition; and (ii) remedy, mitigate or prevent any adverse effects that have resulted from, or are likely to result from, the substantial lessening of competition.
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