Key Antitrust Developments and Competition Trends in Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Egypt 2024

David heads our Antitrust & Competition practice in the Middle East, knowledgeable in merger control filings, investigations, advisory matters, compliance training, and competition litigation. He advises both local and international clients across a diverse range of industries, including construction, retail, FMCG, healthcare, defense, ITC, banking, and insurance. Recognized as the sole Chambers Global-ranked competition lawyer in Saudi Arabia, David brings unparalleled experience to the table. He further assists clients with M&A and corporate matters, including joint ventures and strategic transactions, solidifying his position as a leading corporate lawyer in Saudi Arabia, as recognized by IFLR.

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Mohamed ("Mo") advises multinational companies in a wide range of industry sectors, on antitrust and competition and trade law issues. In the antitrust and competition law area, he is experienced with cartels, price fixing, and market division as well as abuse of dominance and compliance issues. Mo also works extensively on trade disputes related to customs, dumping, and safeguard measures. Mo has additional expertise providing compliance advice to clients, including in the areas of anti-bribery, compliance investigations, dawn raids, and unfair competition. He provides assistance in mergers and acquisitions transactions to obtain regulatory approvals and advise on related compliance with competition laws. Advising and representing clients as Counsel (qualified in Egypt only) in Baker McKenzie's Toronto office, Mo joined Baker McKenzie in 2014 as a Senior Associate in the Cairo office. He has worked in the Firm's London office, where he worked on investigations and merger filings in the EU, Competition & Trade Department. Mo also worked at the Egyptian Competition Authority as a case handler and consultant. Mo holds an LL.M in international and comparative law from the American University in Cairo, an LL.M in EU law from Stockholm University, a GPLL.M in Canadian law from the University of Toronto, and a Ph.D in competition law from Queen Mary, University of London where he taught Competition Law for three years. He has authored several publications on competition law matters in a wide range of peer-reviewed international journals and periodicals.

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Hani has been practicing since 2007 with a focus on M&A, joint ventures, corporate reorganizations and post-acquisition integration as well as corporate structuring, foreign direct investment and market entry in the Middle East with a particular focus on the UAE and Qatar. His experience also covers general commercial contracts such as agency and distribution and advice on corporate governance, compliance and competition matters.
Hani focuses on the healthcare, technology and the retail sectors but he also gained substantive experience advising both companies and government agencies in the defense sector and had significant exposure assisting governmental authorities with developing their internal structures and drafting legislations.
Hani is also the lead Pro Bono partner in the UAE and the Middle East.
Hani holds an MBA degree and a Masters in Management alongside his law degree. He is fully trilingual and practices in English, French and Arabic, all three at a professional level.
Prior to joining Baker McKenzie’s UAE offices in April 2012, Hani worked as a corporate associate at an international law firm in both Dubai and Doha between 2008 and 2012 and prior to that worked at an FMCG company and a private equity group in Kuwait.

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Laya Aoun-Hani is a counsel and senior member of the EMEA Baker McKenzie International Commercial & Trade Practice Group. With over 18 years of experience in the Middle East, Laya regularly advises multinational clients from different industries on regulatory matters, commercial transactions, multijurisdictional distribution and agency arrangements and restructurings, commercial disputes settlements, competition law, trade compliance, export controls, trade sanctions and customs matters. She is the Middle East co-lead for the Baker McKenzie Consumer Goods and Retail and the Healthcare and Life Sciences Industry Groups. Laya has also extensive experience in the Telecommunications sector.
Laya trained at one of the largest law firms in Lebanon and one of the largest international law firms in London before she joined Baker McKenzie in Dubai in 2013. She was a lecturer and coordinator of a Business Law course for five years at the Faculty of Business at Antonine University in Lebanon. Laya is currently a lecturer in the continuous Legal Professional Development Program at the Dubai Legal Affairs Department and a regular speaker at Mecomed

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Mohamed El Baroudy is an associate at Helmy, Hamza & Partners, Baker McKenzie Cairo. Prior to joining the firm, he practiced at the Egyptian Competition Authority (ECA) as Senior Case Handler almost 5 years; where he gained practical knowledge and experience from an ECA's perspective on a wide range of competition related matters. He has also chaired several rounds of negotiation in Africa on behalf of the ECA.
In the Middle East and Africa, Baroudy has also developed and trained a number of competition authorities in enforcing competition law in the region; he has also advised several competition authorities on technical antitrust queries.
In Egypt, Baroudy investigated numerous violation competition cases across several sectors and worked on the Egyptian Competition Law Amendments Project. He was responsible for reviewing the Egyptian draft legislation related to competition to ensure its compliance. He has also provided several trainings to government employees at different governmental authorities to comply with the competitive neutrality policy and the detection of anti-competitive conducts, e.g. collusive practices in public bids.
He received his LL.M. from University of Hamburg, a Master in Economics from Cairo University and a Non Degree LL.M. Diploma from Loyola University in International Merger Control Regulation.

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Marwan Othman is an Associate in Baker McKenize, Riyadh office.

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