SAUDI ARABIA Law and Practice Contributed by: Alex Saleh, Asad Ahmad, Khaled al-Khashab and Shahad Al-Humaidani, GLA & Company
employees must maintain the confidentiality of information, records, data, files and documents (collectively “information”) obtained from the economic concentration parties or other enti - ties in the course of collecting evidence or con - ducting investigations. This information may not be passed to other parties without the approval of the board of directors, where the board’s approval has been recorded in the meeting min - utes or the governor has approved it in the fol - lowing cases. • With the consent of the party providing the information. • For submission of the information to judicial and quasi-judicial bodies. • For the purposes of exchanging views and opinions with international competition authorities concerned with the review pro - cess, where the economic concentration par - ties have been notified of the GAC’s intention to disclose the information and provided that the international competition authority receiv - ing the information will take the necessary legal measures to protect the confidentiality of the information. 7.4 Co-Operation With Other Jurisdictions Where an economic concentration is also being reviewed by competition authorities in other countries, including in cases where the possi - bility of remedies has also been raised in those other countries, the GAC will seek, where pos - sible and reasonable, to consult and co-ordinate with the competition authorities in those coun - tries. This consultation and co-ordination are for the purposes of seeking consistency where this is feasible and appropriate, including in relation to remedies.
Where appropriate, the GAC will seek confi - dentiality waivers from economic concentration parties. These will allow the GAC to exchange confidential information relating to the economic concentration with the relevant foreign compe - tition authorities. The GAC expects economic concentration parties to give it the same notice of economic concentrations and any poten - tial remedies offered as the parties give to the foreign competition authorities and normally requires submissions be lodged with it and the foreign competition authorities simultaneously. 8. Appeals and Judicial Review 8.1 Access to Appeal and Judicial Review The parties have 30 days of the date of notifica - tion or of the date specified for delivering the decision to the parties of the case, even if they failed to appear, to appeal the GAC’s decision to the Riyadh Administrative Court of Appeal. If they do not, it will become final. If one of the parties appeals the GAC’s deci - sion before the Riyadh Administrative Court of Appeal, that party must notify the GAC within three working days of the date of appeal. Noti - fication must be undertaken by way of a letter containing the GAC’s decision number and date and the number and date of the appeal filed with the Riyadh Administrative Court of Appeal as well as a copy of it. 8.2 Typical Timeline for Appeals No statistics have been released with respect to successful or unsuccessful appeals of GAC decisions.
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