Competition and Distribution

Alliance Law’s antitrust & competition expertise encompasses risk assessment, drafting codes of business conduct, setting compliance programs, mock dawn-raids, investigations, litigation, settlements, leniency programs & merger notifications.

Practice Areas

Competition and Distribution

Over recent years, the Egyptian Competition Authority (ECA) has intensified the enforcement of Competition Law and policy, resulting in heightened complexity at the national level. The importance of advocating for competition culture and the state’s competitive neutrality has also been recently evident. In 2022, the introduction of a new pre-merger control regime further molded the legal landscape.

As such, Alliance Law’s team is well positioned to advocate for both national and multinational clients across a diverse spectrum of competition law issues. This encompasses complex local and cross-border mergers and acquisitions clearance, competition investigations, legal opinions, competition litigation, and the implementation of competition compliance programs.

The firm’s expertise extends to distribution concerns, acknowledging the pivotal role of effective distribution strategies for businesses to thrive in their target markets. The team provides counsel on distribution agreements, the creation of distribution networks, franchise agreements, pricing policies, and ensures adherence to competition law rules and regulations.

Alliance Law’s dedicated Competition and Distribution team features highly esteemed lawyers, including former officials from the ECA, bringing a wealth of local and international experience and a deep understanding of the ECA process, with frequent interactions with ECA, courts, and policymakers.

Services and Expertise:

Competition Compliance

In today’s ever-changing world/realm of business and ECA vigorous enforcement policy, adherence to competition laws is crucial. Our team specializes in guiding clients, assisting them in monitoring, detecting, and enforcing competition and compliance policies to prevent any violations. From conducting thorough audits to mock dawn raids, we address practices and policies in order to ensure their compliance with competition law requirements.

Mergers Control Filings

With extensive experience in merger clearance, we conduct early in-depth assessment of potential competition issues, propose mitigation risks plans, and collaborate with ECA to secure approvals for complex national or cross-border transactions efficiently.

Competition Investigations

Our team brings a wealth of experience representing clients before the ECA, covering a wide range of matters such as cartels, abuse of dominance, vertical restraints and leniency programs.
With a proven track record, we have successfully navigated numerous competition investigations before the ECA, resolving them without charges or through negotiated settlements.
Our prompt response to dawn raids conducted by the ECA ensures that clients avoid critical pitfalls and mount an effective defense when necessary.

Competition Litigation and Private Enforcement

Combining technical expertise with strategic advice, the competition team in collaboration with our Litigation team assist clients in pursuing or defending competition-related claims before the Egyptian public prosecutor, the economic courts and the other competent Egyptian courts. Additionally, we provide guidance on complex procedural and substantive matters arising from civil claims related to competition law matters.

Competition Training

Our team offers tailored competition law training and compliance programs to clients’ employees and senior management, ensuring that their policies and business plans align with competition law rules. Through our services, we support clients in reaching their business objectives while mitigating the potential risk of competition law violations.
We have conducted training programs across a wide range of industry sectors, including food and agriculture, telecommunications, pharmaceuticals, and automotive.

State Measures and Government Regulation

Assisting clients with matters related to state measures and government regulations is a cornerstone of our services, whether it be before the ECA or other regulatory bodies such as ministries and government organizations.

Distribution Terms and Conditions

Our team is equipped with the technical expertise to advise clients regarding their distribution agreements, franchise agreements, and other commercial arrangements, as well as policies and commercial sales strategies.

Distribution Networks

Efficient distribution networks serve as the backbone of the success of any business. Our team collaborates with clients to build and expand their distribution networks, identifying key criteria for selecting potential contractors and establishing clear conditions for terminating/ending commercial relationships. Additionally, we specialize in guiding clients through the pre-contractual phase with third parties.

Transactional Highlights

  • Successfully executed the first leniency case before the ECA, ensuring the full protection for our client in the pharmaceutical sector and reducing the potential fine from EGP 5 billion.
  • Represented Aeolus Tyres before ECA and COMESA to obtain clearance for its global structuring.
  • Acted as legal counsel of the Egyptian Cement Association to handle all the legal areas facing the cement industry in Egypt and specifically full compliance with competition law.
  • Acted as legal counsel for the Egyptian Cement Association before the ECA for to obtain an exemption from the horizontal agreement “Cartels” ban regarding the reduction of cement companies’ production capacity.
  • Provided competition compliance programs for local and multinationals such as Vodafone, Philip Morris Misr, Lesaffre Egypt, and Titan Egypt to ensure full compliance with competition law.
  • Assisted our clients such as Intercement, Pirelli, Philip Morris Misr, Ezz Elarab, Vodafone and  Lipton Egypt in setting their commercial/sales policies and guidelines to ensure compliance with the competition law rules and policy.
  • Assisted in and prepared a legal memo for AlSafwa Cement, one of the largest Saudi Cement companies, regarding a matter before the General Authority for Competition in Saudi Arabia (KSA).
  • Assisted in resolving a bid rigging case for our client in the petrochemicals sector (Mansoura for Resins & Chemical Industries), achieving a successful settlement.
  • Represented our client in the food sector (Lesaffre) in settling an abuse of dominance case before ECA.
  • Conducted merger control assessment for clients such as ADNOC and Philip Morris Misr.