Saudi Arabia's General Authority for Competition recently announced key changes to its merger control notification thresholds, adding a new local nexus test and a new minimum turnover.
On 29 March 2023, Saudi Arabia's antitrust regulator increased the minimum turnover threshold for merger control filings from 100 million to 200 million Saudi Riyals, which should.
The tidal wave of antitrust activity throughout the Middle East & North Africa is expected to continue rising in 2023, as several jurisdictions across the region have started to amend.
The Government of Kuwait has recently amended its competition law to include for the first time a pre-merger notification regime based on turnover thresholds. Kuwait's Competition Protection Agency has started to apply the new thresholds and has already launched inquiries into transactions that may have failed to file.
On 16 June 2022, Saudi Arabia's General Authority for Competition announced its decision to block National Gas and Industrialization Company from acquiring a majority stake in Best Gas.