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Mohamed El Baroudy

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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.

This week, the Egyptian Competition Authority (ECA) issued three price-fixing cartel cases against 21 of the major producers of table eggs, including board members of the Table Eggs Chamber, which is part of the General Union of Chicken Producers. In those cases, the Cartel Members agreed on the selling price of white and red table eggs, violating Article 6 of the Egyptian Competition Law No. 3 of 2005. The ECA initiated criminal proceedings before the public prosecution office for the Cartel Members and did not settle the case.

Over the past year, antitrust regulators in the Middle East have implemented significant changes to the local competition law regimes, with a new competition law coming into effect in the United Arab Emirates and substantial changes being made to the applicable merger control regimes in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) and Egypt. Competition law enforcement has also continued to intensify in the KSA and Egypt, as well as in other key emerging markets in the GCC. During this 2-hour seminar, we will provide an update on the latest key competition law developments and what to expect on the horizon as well as compliance tips and pointers.

Ahead of the coming into force of the new Egyptian merger control regime on 1st of June 2024, the Egyptian Competition Authority (ECA) today published its new notification form as well as questions and answers providing clarifications to merger parties. The ECA had received feedback that its proposed jurisdictional thresholds were too broad leading to transactions with no impact on the Egyptian market needing to be notified. To address these concerns, the ECA has narrowed down its jurisdictional thresholds, clearly requiring a local nexus for transactions. The ECA has also created a simplified procedure and fast track process for certain transactions.

The Egyptian Competition Authority (ECA) recently issued its first vertical restraints case prohibiting the vertical agreement between eight manufacturers and suppliers, along with their distributors (organized/hypermarkets and independent merchants). The ECA stated that were they found to have agreed on setting the minimum fixed resale price maintenance (RPM) and adopted Most Favored Nation clauses (MFN) in distribution contracts of household electrical appliances. This conduct was deemed a violation of Article 7 of the Egyptian Competition Law No. 3 for 2005.

On 4 April 2024, the Executive Regulation of the new Egyptian pre-merger control regime was officially published by Prime Minister Decree No. 1120 of 2024. The ER introduces the implementing regulations for the newly established pre-merger control regime issued by the Law number 175 of 2022 which empowers the Egyptian Competition Authority with significant powers in reviewing and approving transactions. The ER states that it will enter into force on 1 June 2024, i.e. transactions that close on or after 1 June 2024, and meet the prescribed thresholds, must obtain prior approval from the ECA.