Introduction

Previous Clyde & Co legal updates (‘The New Federal Competition Law in the UAE', 3 December 2012; and ‘The new UAE competition law: merger and acquisition control: stay ahead of the competition!' 11 February 2013) summarised the main provisions of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) Federal Competition Law (Federal Law No. 4/2012) which came into force on 23 February 2013 (UAE Competition Law). As discussed in those updates, the legislation regulates certain anti-competitive practices and M&A activity.

The UAE Competition Law envisaged the publication of regulations setting out in detail the processes to be followed by parties seeking exemptions from the rules and the notification and clearance procedures in respect of ‘economic concentrations'. Council of Ministers' Resolution No. 37 of 2014 on the Executive Regulation of the Federal Law No. 4 of 2012 relating to Competition Regulation (Regulations) came into force on 27 October 2014.