It is hereby notified to the general public that the COMESA Competition Commission (“the Commission”) has organised a Regional Validation Workshop for the Draft Guideline on the Implementation of the Merger Control Provisions under the COMESA Competition Regulations (“the Regulations”) and the COMESA Competition Rules (“the Rules”) scheduled for 1 – 2 July, 2014 in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.

The general public will recall that the commencement of operations of the Commission in January, 2013, triggered a lot of interest from stakeholders from both the region and beyond as regards how the new regime will work and indeed how the various provisions of the Regulations and Rules will be implemented. In order to allay these concerns and ensure certainty in the implementation of the law, the Commission responded by issuing draft guidelines on the interpretation of the various provisions of the Regulations and Rules which were initially posted on the Commission website in April, 2014, for wider stakeholder comments.

Considering the comprehensive nature of the inputs on the draft guidelines received from stakeholders and the desire to deliver the guidelines that meets international best practices, the Commission, through the support of the International Finance Corporation (IFC), engaged consultants to assist in polishing up the merger control guideline based on international best practices. The Consultancy prioritised the merger control guideline considering the significant amount of interest the merger control provisions of the Regulations and Rules generated among the stakeholders.

Following the delivery of the initial draft revised merger control guideline by the Consultants, the Commission in collaboration with the IFC organized a Regional Workshop on the Revision of the Merger Control Provisions under the Regulations and the Rules which took place in Johannesburg, South Africa on 2-4 April, 2014. The workshop, among others, provided an opportunity for the Member States to deliberate and make inputs into the revised draft guideline on the implementation of the merger control provisions of the Regulations.

Following the workshop in South Africa, Since then, the consultants in collaboration with the Steering Committee have been working to perfect the guideline taking into account the inputs from the Member States and other stakeholders. The Commission has, therefore, organised this validation workshop whose objective is to enable the Member States and other Competition Law Experts and Practitioners make final inputs into the process before the guideline is tabled for adoption by the Commission’s Board of Commissioners scheduled to meet in August, 2014.

Recognising that there is no finality in such processes, the Commission wishes to encourage those who may still have inputs to make on the guideline to make such submissions to the Commission by contacting Willard Mwemba, on wmwemba@comesa.int or write to the Commission on the following address:

The Director,
COMESA Competition Commission,
5th Floor-West Wing, Kang’ombe House,
P.O. Box 30742,
Lilongwe 3,
Malawi.

Cell: +265 (0) 991 320088
Office Phone: +265 (0) 1 772466
Email: compcom@comesa.int
www.comesacompetition.org