KUWAIT Law and Practice Contributed by: Alex Saleh, Asad Ahmad, Khaled Al Makhezeem and Liana Rashid, GLA & Company
not count towards the 90-day period otherwise imposed on the executive director of the Kuwait CPA during their review phase. Following completion of the executive director’s review, a report will be issued to the chairman of the Kuwait CPA containing details of the appli - cation, a description of all facts and procedures taken with respect to the application, an evalu - ation of the application from both a legal and economic standpoint and a recommendation. The chairman of the Kuwait CPA presents the application to the Kuwait CPA’s board, who will in turn decide on the application within 30 days of the date of the chairman’s presentation. The board may decide to: • approve the economic concentration applica - tion; • conditionally approve the economic concen - tration application; or • reject the economic concentration applica - tion, provided that the decision is justified. Once a decision is made, the executive director must inform the stakeholders within 15 days of the date of the board’s decision. The total timeframe for a decision to be rendered from the time an application is properly submit - ted is estimated to be four months. However, the actual time, may vary depending on follow- up requests for additional information, requests for additional time by the executive director or objections raised by third parties. 3.9 Pre-Notification Discussions With Authorities Pre-notification discussions with authorities can be engaged in. Any person who desires to enter into an economic concentration may apply for a
meeting before submitting an application. There is no particular obligation of confidentiality pro - vided for in the Kuwait Competition Law. Under Resolution No 24 of 2021, the pre-notification fee is KWD250. 3.10 Requests for Information During the Review Process Requests for information are common and are expected depending on the extent of the appli - cation submitted. These types of requests will effectively suspend the time otherwise imposed on the Kuwait CPA to process an application. 3.11 Accelerated Procedure There is no formal method for expediting or accelerating the procedure of review of an eco - nomic concentration application. 4. Substance of the Review 4.1 Substantive Test When considering an application, the Kuwait CPA considers the following standards. • Maintaining and encouraging effective com - petition amongst competitors in the market. • Enhancing the interests of consumers with respect to quality and price of the relevant products. • Encouraging, through competition, the reduc - tion of costs, developing new products and facilitating access to the market for new competitors. The executive director, during their review, takes the following elements into account. • Studying the products according to the fol - lowing:
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