As reported in our last Competition Update, a new competition law (Federal Law No. 4/2012, the Competition Law) came into effect in the UAE on 23 February 2013.  The Competition Law seeks to regulate market behaviour, particularly in relation to abuse of a dominant position, merger control and the regulation of restrictive agreements.  However, since coming into effect there has been uncertainty over the enforcement of the Competition Law.  This was mainly due to the fact that the Competition Law envisaged further regulations setting out more detail on a number of critical points, including:

• the relevant market share thresholds for the definition of "dominant position" and the triggering of economic concentration pre-approval (Merger Approvals) requirements;

• the scope of the "weak agreement" exception applicable to certain restrictive agreements; and

• the applicable exemption/clearance procedures for relevant practices and transactions.