UAE Law and Practice Contributed by: Alex Saleh, Asad Ahmad, Khaled Abuorabi and Habiba Wahdan, GLA & Company
5.6 Issuance of Decisions Decisions permitting or prohibiting a transaction are issued formally and are notified to all of the concerned parties. A decision will be implied if it is not made during the 90-day period pro - vided in the Competition Law even though this 90-day period may be extended for an additional 45 days. Decisions are not available publicly and cannot therefore be revisited by the public to check. There is a privity to the parties who are made aware of the decisions. This could be limited to the “undertaking(s)” or include third parties such as concerned UAE authorities and regulatory bodies or parties directly or indirectly affected by the decision. 5.7 Prohibitions and Remedies for Foreign-to-Foreign Transactions The authors are not aware of the Competition Department requiring remedies or prohibiting foreign-to-foreign transactions as this is not publicly available information. 6. Ancillary Restraints and Related Transactions 6.1 Clearance Decisions and Separate Notifications According to the Competition Regulations, the Minister issues a reasoned decision as a: • clearance decision to approve the transaction if it does not negatively affect competition or if it has positive economic impacts on com - petition that outweigh the negative impacts; • clearance decision to approve the transac - tion, provided that the relevant “undertakings” comply with the conditions and obligations specified by the Minister; or
• decision to reject the transaction. The decision should cover the transaction as a whole including any related arrangement (ancil - lary restraints) if it was part of the notification made to the Competition Department. No sepa - rate notifications will be required in addition to the decision. The Minister may revoke the clearance if it appears that the: • circumstances under which the approval has been granted no longer exist; • relevant “undertaking(s)” has/have breached any conditions or obligations on which the approval has been granted; or • approval has been granted on the basis of misleading or incorrect information. In that case, the competent authority will take the appropriate legal actions to sue and pros - ecute the relevant “undertaking(s)” in breach. The Competition Department maintains a spe - cial record for recording decisions issued by the Minister regarding the notifications for approval of “economic concentration” transactions. This record is not publicly available. These procedures might be amended in the new Implementing Regulations. 7. Third-Party Rights, Confidentiality and Cross-Border Co-Operation 7.1 Third-Party Rights See 3.9 Pre-Notification Discussions With Authorities .
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