On 8 April 2025, the General Authority for Competition (GAC) of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) published the 5th edition of its Economic Concentration Review Guidelines (formerly known as the Merger Review Guidelines).
This critical update, following the GAC’s public consultation on its proposed amendments to the Guidelines of 1 July 2024, provides essential refinements and clarity on the KSA merger control regime.

The United Arab Emirates (UAE) Cabinet has issued its long-anticipated Decision No. (3) of 2025 (the “Decision”), clarifying the thresholds under the new merger control regime, which are set to come into force on 1 April 2025. The UAE introduced a significant shift in its competition framework in 2023. This change was solidified with the enactment of Federal Law No. 36 of 2023 (the “Competition Law”), which came into effect on 29 December 2023.

The UK Government passed the long-awaited Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act (“Act”) on 24 May 2024. Some provisions of the Act take effect immediately (for example, new controls over foreign ownership of newspapers), but most provisions will enter into force in Autumn this year following the conclusion of a public consultation on important legislative guidance. The Act introduces radical new digital sector regulation – akin to the European Union’s Digital Markets Act – in addition to expanding the UK Competition & Markets Authority’s consumer protection powers and introducing significant reform of the UK competition regime.

Baker McKenzie’s Sanctions Blog published the alert titled  Blog Series: Sanctions Enforcement Around the World – Five Eyes Partners agree to coordinate enforcement on export controls on 11 July 2023. Read the article via the link here. Please also visit our Sanctions Blog for the most recent updates.