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South Africa’s merger-control regime has had a May 2026 reset: the Minister of Trade, Industry and Competition has just gazetted amendments to the merger thresholds under section 11 of the Competition Act, 1998, in consultation with the Competition Commission, with the new thresholds taking effect from 1 May 2026.
The Minister has also amended Rule 10(5) of the Competition Commission Rules to increase the merger filing fees for intermediate and large mergers, also effective from 1 May 2026 - ZAR220,000 for intermediate mergers and ZAR735,000 for large mergers.
The changes to the thresholds are as follows:
The immediate takeaway for dealmakers and transacting parties is that that live and upcoming transactions should be checked against the new thresholds to determine if notification is still required and filing fee budgets should be adjusted accordingly.
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