United Arab Emirates: Antitrust/Competition Law

The UAE Competition Department has published its first comprehensive Guidelines on Relevant Market Definition, providing businesses with crucial clarity on the analytical framework used in competition assessments. These guidelines are particularly significant for merger control, where defining the relevant market is essential to determining whether a mandatory filing obligation exists under the UAE's unique threshold requirements.

The UAE's competition law regime has undergone significant transformation with the introduction of a new Competition Law and turnover-based merger notification thresholds. While the federal UAE Competition Commission holds principal jurisdiction, the Executive Regulations now provide guidance on how competition enforcement powers are allocated and coordinated between federal authorities, Emirate-level authorities, and sector-specific regulators.

The UAE's competition regime has undergone a significant transformation with Cabinet Resolution No. 59 of 2026, introducing Executive Regulations to Federal Decree-Law No. 36 of 2023. These regulations establish a detailed procedural framework for obtaining individual exemptions and implementing block exemptions, while moving the assessment of dominance beyond purely market share-based approaches to require broader economic analysis of market power.