EGYPT Law and Practice Contributed by: Alex Saleh, Asad Ahmad, Hegui Taha and Farida Koura, GLA & Company
firm to conduct the procedures for selling the shares. The proceeds of the sale of shares will be apportioned to the shareholder after the correspondent expenses are deducted. • Economic concentrations related to activities that are regulated by the FRA are subject to a special clearance process. According to Arti - cle 19 bis e of the Egyptian Competition Law and Article 62 of the Executive Regulations, the parties involved have to notify the FRA before signing the contract, if the target oper - ates in activities supervised and controlled by the FRA such as insurance, mortgage, finan - cial leasing, factoring or consumer finance. The FRA will seek the opinion of the ECA before clearing the economic concentration. A decision must be issued by the ECA within 30 days from the following day of receiving a complete notification file from the FRA. Where the target person engages in more than one activity, including activities subject to the supervision and control of the FRA, the person in this case must notify the ECA of all activities according to Article 19 bis a of the Egyptian Competition Law, in addition to notifying the FRA of the activity or activities subject to its supervision and control accord - ing to Article 19 bis e of the Egyptian Compe - tition Law. • Additional regulatory agencies in the Egyp - tian market, include but are not limited to the Egyptian Electric Utility, the Gas Regula - tory Authority and the Supreme Council for Media Regulation. They may also require prior approval before the conclusion of a transac - tion which would result in the acquisition of control over a specific company which oper - ates in the relevant sector. The ECA’s rela - tionship with all these agencies is a comple - mentary relationship where the primary goal is to protect consumer rights and the public interest.
The Egyptian Competition Law states that one of the responsibilities of the ECA is to co-ordinate with the sectoral regulatory agencies on mat - ters of common interest, without prejudice to the functions of the various agencies. In the same vein, despite the overlapping scope of the various regulators in respect of compe - tition matters, the merger control notification regime prescribed under Article 19 of the Egyp - tian Competition Law remains applicable to all sectors making any economic concentration subject to the jurisdiction of the ECA. 1.3 Enforcement Authorities The ECA is responsible for the enforcement of the Egyptian Competition Law and its Executive Regulations. The ECL established the ECA as an independent body affiliated directly with the Egyptian Prime Minister. The ECA is mandated to act as the administrative body responsible for safeguarding a climate in which competitors have equal opportunities to compete in all eco - nomic sectors. The Egyptian Competition Law grants the ECA the power to issue the following decisions after completing the review process: dismissal of a request; non-jurisdiction; clearance; conditional clearance; or block decisions. In order for the ECA to perform its duties, it may request the assistance, and further clarifications in certain sectors, from the relevant regulatory authorities governing these sectors. The regula - tory authorities will be considered experts in the field but will not have a vote on the matter.
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