UAE Law and Practice Contributed by: Alex Saleh, Asad Ahmad, Khaled Abuorabi and Habiba Wahdan, GLA & Company
competent authorities and the sectoral regula - tory bodies on the execution of the provisions of the Competition Law. Employees of the Compe - tition Department will be specified by a resolu - tion of the UAE Minister of Justice in agreement with the Minister and the relevant competent authority will have the capacity of judicial offic - ers to prove violations of the UAE Competition Legislation. 5.2 Parties’ Ability to Negotiate Remedies When the Competition Department has con - cerns about a transaction, the parties may pro - pose remedies. For example they may propose divestitures or structural or behavioural reme - dies. The Competition Department then has sole discretion to accept or reject these remedies and include them in the recommendations it submits to the Minister. The Minister will then consider the remedies and make a final decision. 5.3 Legal Standard There is no specific legal standard that remedies must meet to be considered acceptable. It is therefore up to the parties to agree on the most suitable remedies with the Competition Depart - ment. The remedies should then be accepted by the Minister. 5.4 Negotiating Remedies With Authorities Remedies can be proposed at any point until the Minister makes a final decision. It can be pro - posed by the relevant “undertaking(s)” making the notification, the Competition Department or even the Minister, who can issue clearance of the ”economic concentration” transaction subject to certain remedies being satisfied. Proposals for remedies are usually communicated in writing but can also be initially discussed verbally for the
purpose of submitting the final remedy proposal in writing. 5.5 Conditions and Timing for Divestitures Divestiture (ie, the commitment to sell a business unit) may take the form of a: • horizontal division where the same sharehold - ers own the shares of the new companies; or • vertical division where part of the existing company is carved out and transferred to a newly established subsidiary owned by the parent company. The Competition Department is most likely to entrust the relevant “undertaking(s)” with pre - paring the divestiture plan (if acceptable to the Competition Department) and overseeing the implementation of the divesture plan after the clearance has been issued. However, there is no general preference for any type of divestiture. It is assessed on a case-by-case basis. There is therefore no standard approach regard - ing conditions and timing for divestitures or other remedies. It will be left to the remedy arrange - ment agreed with the Competition Department or stipulated in the clearance issued by the Min - ister, including completing a transaction before remedies are complied with. Failing to comply with the remedies may lead to the clearance being withdrawn and/or a fine imposed. The amount of the fine imposed will be at the discretion of the Competition Department. However, it will have to be approved by the Min - ister and will be limited to the fine thresholds specified by the Competition Law.
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