United Arab Emirates: Antitrust/Competition Law

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.

The UAE's new Executive Regulations to the Competition Law introduce significant clarifications on predatory pricing, establishing that such conduct may be prohibited independent of market dominance. The regulations provide structured cost benchmarks for assessment, distinguishing between pricing below average variable cost and pricing between variable and total costs, while outlining factors authorities will consider when evaluating anticompetitive intent and commercial justifications.