KUWAIT Law and Practice Contributed by: Alex Saleh, Asad Ahmad, Khaled Al Makhezeem and Liana Rashid, GLA & Company
1. Legislation and Enforcing Authorities 1.1 Merger Control Legislation
• The Central Bank of Kuwait (CBK) governs certain activities of financial institutions in Kuwait and carries its own set of regulations that must be complied with when the transac - tion concerns a bank or other financial institu - tion regulated by the CBK. 1.3 Enforcement Authorities The Kuwait CPA is an independent body estab - lished in line with the Kuwait Competition Law and is supervised by the Kuwait Minister of Com - merce and Industry. The Kuwait CPA is the sole body responsible for reviewing and determining applications to approve economic concentra - tions or other anti-competitive practices. It is also solely responsible for enforcing the Kuwait Competition Law. The Kuwait Competition Law requires an appli - cation to be submitted to the Kuwait CPA by per - sons involved in economic concentrations within at least 60 days from the date of the contract or agreement regarding the transaction, where the economic concentration meets specific thresh - olds established by the Kuwait CPA. The appli - cation must be submitted to the Kuwait CPA in the required form and the requirements under the Kuwait Competition Law. It must be approved by the Kuwait CPA before the economic concentra - tion may be lawfully implemented. The Kuwait Competition Law provides relatively conserva - tive thresholds for determining whether an appli - cation is required. These are as follows: 2. Jurisdiction 2.1 Notification • where one of the parties to the concentration achieves annual sales in Kuwait exceeding KWD500,000, according to the audited finan -
Merger control issues in Kuwait are governed by Law No 72 of 2020, which came into force on 1 November 2020. They are also governed by its regulations, which were ratified by the Kuwait Competition Protection Agency (the “Kuwait CPA”) under Resolutions No 14 of 2021, No 26 of 2021 and No 25 of 2022. Law No 72 of 2020 and its regulations are together referred to as the ”Kuwait Competition Law”. The Kuwait Competition Law repealed its prede - cessor, Law No 10 of 2007 and expanded on the governing rules that impact competition in the State of Kuwait. The Kuwait Competition Law does not prejudice the international treaties and agreements in force in the State of Kuwait. This means that those treaties and agreements with the Kuwaiti government supersede any provi - sions that would otherwise apply pursuant to the Kuwait Competition Law. 1.2 Legislation Relating to Particular Sectors In addition to the Kuwait Competition Law, the following apply. • The executive by-laws of the Kuwait Capital Markets Authority (the “Kuwait CMA”). These include particular disclosure requirements and other restrictions impacting transactions that are also subject to the Kuwait Competi - tion Law. The Kuwait CMA governs compa - nies that: (a) are listed on the Kuwait stock exchange (the Boursa); or (b) carry licences, such as investing, which are governed by the Kuwait CMA.
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