Economic concentration: The turnaround | L’Economiste
Pre-merger control accounts for 80% of the Competition Council’s activities: 142 decisions in 2022. In its latest annual report, the Council takes stock of the campaign to regularize transactions that have not been notified to it. This covers the period from January 01, 2019 to the end of December 2021.
This unprecedented transactional procedure partially closes a turbulent chapter in the life of the regulator. One of the highlights was the royal appointment of Ahmed Rahhou to the presidency of the Competition Council in March 2021 in Fez.
«The regularization procedure has been crowned with success. The Competition Council received 150 applications, 27 of which were deemed notifiable», says the Council. The applications not accepted by the investigators do not fall within the scope of the law on freedom of pricing and competition, according to the information in our possession.
In addition, the financial and insurance sector is leading the pack, with 52% of transactions regularized. The Competition Council, set up in the early 2000s, has handed down sanctions totaling 36 million Dirhams (USD 3.6 million).
However, the update on the regularization of outlawed transactions does not detail their exact nature. Are they joint ventures, mergers, takeovers, direct or indirect shareholdings, asset purchases, contracts, or something else? Generally speaking, acquisitions of sole control are often the most numerous ones present in the annual census of economic concentrations, including in 2022.
In addition to the 27 voluntary filings, the competition authority acted on its own initiative in three cases. The fines in these last three cases totaled 33 million Dirhams (USD 3.3 million). This is almost equivalent to the amount collected in the context of regularized economic mergers.
An «exceptional» year! This is the first time in the history of the Competition Council that sanctions have been imposed: 30 out of 31 decisions relate solely to economic mergers. Only one involved a price-fixing agreement among chartered accountants.
It cannot be ruled out that those initial record figures could have been much higher, … both in terms of volume and value. The confidences of some business lawyers attest to this reality.
Being dubious or recalcitrant, some clients preferred to play dead rather than declare themselves spontaneously to the Competition Council.
The chief investigator suggests that this is only a matter of postponement. “Admittedly, the 5-year statute of limitations may apply to some specific member of the business community. But everything becomes known in business. Our investigation department will do everything in its power to ferret out any fraudsters”, insisted the Board’s General rapporteur, Khalid Bouayachi (see L’Economiste no. 6360, October 03, 2022).
Faiçal FAQUIHI
