Andreas Stargard

COMESA’S SECOND RESTRICTIVE TRADE PRACTICES INVESTIGATION ENDS INCONCLUSIVELY* Having now concluded two non-merger cases (the first was an exclusivity issue in football broadcasting and sponsorship agreements, see here), the COMESA Competition Commission’s (“CCC”) second investigation into (...)

NAMIBIA: HIGH COURT DECLARES COMPETITION COMMISSION’S SEARCH AND SEIZURE UNLAWFUL* On 9 November 2018, the High Court in Namibia declared a dawn raid conducted by the Namibian Competition Commission (NaCC) in September 2016 to be unlawful. The NaCC raided the premises of PUMA Energy on the (...)

BOTSWANA COMPETITION AUTHORITY: EXCEPTION APPLICATION BACKFIRES FOR CHOPPIES-PAYLESS BUYING GROUP* The Competition Authority of Botswana (CA) rejected an exemption application brought by two FMCG players. The applicants, Choppies Distribution Centre and Payless Supermarkets, sought to (...)

NEW KENYA DOMESTIC MERGER THRESHOLDS PROPOSED, LIMITING NOTIFICATIONS* The Competition Authority of Kenya (“the CAK”) has issued a new proposal introducing financial thresholds for merger notifications which will exempt firms with less than 1 billion Kenyan Shillings (KSh)(approximately (...)

SOUTH AFRICAN COMPETITION TRIBUNAL FINDS IN FAVOUR OF STER-KINEKOR IN MARKET ALLOCATION CASE* The South African Competition Tribunal (“the Tribunal”) last week dismissed a complaint referred to it by the Competition Commission (“the Commission”) in 2009 which alleged that two rival cinemas, (...)

COMPETITION AUTHORITY APPROVES KFC FRANCHISE M&A WITH PUBLIC-INTEREST CONDITIONS* On 7 February 2018 the Competition Authority of Botswana (“The Competition Authority”) approved, with conditions, the acquisition by Bradleymore’s Holdings (Pty) Ltd (“Bradleymore’s”), which is incorporated (...)

ENFORCEMENT ALERT: MU COMPETITION COMMISSION TO PERMIT CARTEL INITIATORS TO SEEK LENIENCY* Competition Commission of Mauritius (CCM) has announced changes to its leniency programme. Though the CCM did have a functioning leniency programme in place since its inception in 2009, the it was (...)

MERGER CONTROL: PUBLIC INTEREST & SINOPEC/CHEVRON* WHEN THE STICK IS GREATER THAN THE CARROT While China Petroleum & Chemical Corporation (Sinopec), and global commodities trader and miner Glencore are the front runners in a bid to buy Chevron’s South African Business (Chevron SA), (...)

Zambia: Competition Authority conducts dawn raids in the maize milling industry* ZNBC reported on 30 October 2015 that the Zambian Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (CCPC) conducted dawn raids on three milling companies, namely National Milling Corporation, Superior Milling (...)

Zambian Competition Authorities finalise guidelines for new merger regulations* The Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (“CCPC”) recently published the CCPC Guidelines for Merger Regulations 2015 (the “Guidelines”). The Guidelines are binding on all “persons” regulated under the (...)

Finally: One step forward for COMESA Merger enforcement? New rules, new commissioners* Clarification or not? Amended rules for merger notification Repealing the oft-criticised original 2012 Rules on the Determination of Merger Notification Threshold, the COMESA Board of Commissioners (...)

Plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose: Revised EU de minimis notice retains % thresholds, clarifies per se rule* Nothing new: The newly-revised de minimis notice of the European Commission isn’t that novel The revised Notice (after its 1997 and 2001 predecessors) retains the 10% and 15% (...)

Beer cartels: first fine sought in mauritius leniency matter* Precedential leniency case yields initial fine The Competition Commission of Mauritius (“the Commission”) has recommended fines of approximately €487,000 and €158,000 be imposed on Phoenix Beverages Ltd (PLB) and Stag Beverages, (...)

Namibian merger control: 1st deal of 2014 gets conditions* Namibian Competition Commission imposes conditions on mining deal The Namibian Competition Commission has given its first conditional approval of the year in a gold-mine transaction, imposing employment conditions that require the (...)

International Competition Network meets in Morocco* The International Competition Network‘s 13th annual conference — being hosted by Morocco’s King Mohammed VI at the “Palmeraie Golf Palace” — concludes today. It is the second ICN event in recent memory to take place on African soil since (...)

EU Parliament votes in favour of private antitrust damages initiative. Antitrust: Commission welcomes Parliament vote to facilitate damages claims by victims of antitrust violations* The European Parliament gave its green light to the Commission private-damages directive today: The (...)

Television antitrust saga continues, MultiChoice in the cross-hairs again* Interest group seeks antitrust investigation in free-to-air channels According to a press release by the Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (ICASA), the organisation proposed last on 4 April 2014 a (...)

From DOJ: First-Ever Pure Antitrust Extradition* In what may well affect African and other international price-fixers going forward, the spectre of U.S. extradition for criminal antitrust charges has been reinforced by the recent successful DOJ extradition request in the “Marine Hose” (...)

Executives Beware: The Long-Arm of the U.S. Government Strikes Again* The long-arm of the U.S. government and its increasing willingness to pursue foreign nationals for alleged violations of U.S. law was further in evidence last Friday when the Antitrust Division of the U.S. Justice (...)

Slow-going M&A statistics in COMESA before anticipated threshold revision* Strong numbers from early 2014 did not hold up After posting a record three merger notifications in January, the COMESA Competition Commission has seen its M&A filing statistics decline to zero in February (...)

COMESA merger stats: January ’14 outperforms first 6 months of 2013* Three merger notifications in one month set new record for COMESA Competition Commission. After commenting on the rather lackluster statistics of the first 11 months A.D. 2013, we observed that some deal-making parties (...)

Airtel Kenya requests probe of Safaricom for abuse of dominance in mobile money transfer market* Mobile payment wars heating up in Kenya Airtel Networks Kenya Limited (“Airtel”) has joined forces with Kenya-based Equity Bank to launch a similar mobile banking product, M-KESHO in July 2014 (...)

Worrying trends in South African merger control – Government’s abuse of process continues unabated* Secret deals sideline competition authorities In what can only be described as a significant step backwards in ensuring that the more established of the emerging economies enforce the (...)

Telecom adversaries to remain “principled” in their competing bids for 4G spectrum* The telecoms are at it again, and MTN and Vodacom find themselves close together once more. Last October, we reported on their being jointly targeted by competitor Cell C for predatory “on-net” pricing. (...)

Commission’s fisheries merger conditions upheld on review by Tribunal* Competition Tribunal confirms Commission’s ruling on Oceana and Foodcorp merger Johannesburg-listed Ocean Group Limited is the largest fishing company in South Africa, whose fishing activities include inter alia the (...)

COMESA and W. Australia now economically linked via MoU* The Western Australian government has signed a Memorandum of Understanding with COMESA. Colin Barnett signed the papers yesterday, January 31, 2014. COMESA dutifully posted a news release on its web site, albeit misspelling the W. (...)

The Commission Doth Protest Too Much?* The defensive justification for the Commission’s healthcare inquiry by its acting chief has widely caused eyebrows to be raised… As reported, the South African Competition Commission (“Commission”) has launched its first-ever market inquiry into the (...)

Mobile Telecom and Payments sector getting boost from state in Kenya* According to a release by the Kenyan Communications Commission (CCK), the CCK is cooperating with the country’s Competition Authority (CAK) to enhance the mobile telecoms sector in Kenya. The CCK is aiming for 90% of all (...)

Some COMESA Merger-Control Musings on the Latest Notification* It’s been a little while since we last published a note on COMESA. When there is little substantive news to report, statistics often yield a topic to write about. And so it is with COMESA. The statistic at hand: On Monday, 18. (...)

South Africa’s mobile operators under attack for discriminatory “on-net” pricing* Cell C (one of South Africa’s top 3 mobile telecommunications providers) has filed a complaint against competitors MTN and Vodacom with the Competition Commission, according to its press statement dated October (...)

COMESA issues antitrust RFP for comment & review project, re-releases 5 draft Guidelines* COMESA’s Competition Commission’s (“CCC”) has issued a Request for Proposal to conduct a comprehensive review of its previously-released five draft competition Guidelines. In doing so, the CCC (...)

COMESA publishes explanation of first two merger approvals & receives 4th deal filing* The COMESA Competition Commission (“CCC”) has finally shed some light on the substantive merger analysis it undertook in its first two notified (and now cleared) transactions. The full text of the (...)

SA telecoms firm implements antitrust settlement terms* According to a report by ITweb Business, the South African incumbent R16 billion telecommunications giant Telkom Limited (no stranger to this blog) has now taken steps to implement its landmark June 2013 settlement in a margin-squeeze (...)

Soccer fields, SRAM, and Sotheby’s? Fast-track settlements in ZA construction probe yield €113m* What do soccer stadiums, LCD panels, and lysine** have in common? Price-fixing might be one answer. Record antitrust fines might be another, closely related, response. The South African (...)

Antitrust in Mozambique? …could have stayed in COMESA* We know it’s a somewhat brusque title for a “new competition regime” post. But we must ask ourselves: Why is the República de Moçambique now joining the growing cadre of countries with a competition-law regime — almost exactly half a (...)

COMESA merger rules to change in April 2014 at the earliest* Breaking news: A senior source at the COMESA Competition Commission (“CCC”), has confirmed that the CCC is currently finalising proposed amendments to the Regulations. The amendments being debated seek to change, crucially, the (...)

Clarification of COMESA merger regime filing fee* Yesterday, on 26. February 2013, the COMESA Competition Commission issued new guidance relating to the amended merger notification requirements, as follows. Note especially the clarification on the “higher of / lower of” filing fee issue that (...)

3 weeks until UAE competition law goes into effect* The first true antitrust law of the Emirates will come into force on 23 February 2013. “Federal Law No. 4 of 2012” (not to be confused with legislation relating to nuclear safety of the same title) was passed by the United Arab Emirates (...)

S.A. Clears 3-to-2 Infant Nutrition Merger with Remedies* The South African Competition Tribunal has green-lighted the almost $12bn (R106bn) Nestlé/Pfizer deal, which will combine the largest and 3rd-largest infant-nutrition companies in the South African republic, leaving competitor Aspen (...)