A brief note from the “front lines” of the COMESA Competition Commission’s 10-year anniversary event: Isaac Tausha, chief economist for research policy and advocacy, provides the following statistics — notably for the entire duration of the CCC’s life decade so far.
In short: Gone are the meager days of fledgling notifications to the CCC.
Statistics Since Inception
369 mergers and acquisitions assessed. (Total COMESA revenues of merging parties: US$210bn)
Over 40 Restrictive Business Practices assessed
Over 44 Consumer Protection cases handled
More than 12 market screenings and studies undertaken
3 businesses fined for non-compliance with the Regulations
Doing a “back of the envelope” estimate, we at AAT are calculating the total merger filing fees resulting from those 367 notified deals to be possibly north of $75 million$65 million, so on average $6.5m “income” for the CCC per year (half of which goes to the 21 member states, of course, under the Regulations). This is notably without taking into account fines, e.g., a recent $102,000+ fine for failure to notify (as in our reporting on the Helios Towers / Malawi case).
Dr. Chris Onyango (Dir. Trade, Customs and Monetary Affairs, COMESA)Dr. Lipimile (former CCC CEO). Mary Gurure (Head of Legal, CCC). Andreas Stargard (Editor, AAT).
The COMESA Competition Commission (CCC), under the leadership of its CEO and Director Dr. Mwemba, organised its first “Emerging Trends in Competition and Consumer Law Enforcement in the Wake of Regional and Continental Integration” workshop in Zambia, targeting legal practitioners across and outside Africa. Its objective is to discuss various issues in competition and consumer protection law enforcement at national, regional and continental level including emerging issues such as the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA).
Michael Currie, a competition partner at Primerio, said of the event, “Great to be participating at the COMESA Competition Commission’s first Workshop dedicated specifically to legal practitioners, hosted here in Livingstone. It was informative, and simply good to be travelling, meeting old friends and colleagues and seeing world heritage sights all in a few days work. This is an important initiative by the CCC as it expands its advocacy and enforcement initiatives across the Common Market. Important topics on the agenda including updates on the CCC’s approach to penalties, settlement procedures and investigations as well as the more robust merger regime in place. Thank you Willard Mwemba for the invitation and congrats on a well-organised event!”
Hosted in partnership with Franklin Société d’avocats
When: 13 October 2021 at 15:00 CET/SAST (09:00 ET) Where: Virtual Registration: Click HERE to register (this event is free to attend)
About: Join Primerio and Franklin’s directors as they canvass a broad range of legal and regulatory risks in investing in Africa. This session will be held in both English and French.
Speakers:Jérôme Michel (Partner, Franklin); Joël Rault (Senior Advisor, Franklin); John Oxenham (Director, Primerio International); Lionel Lesur (Partner, Franklin); Andreas Stargard (Director, Primerio International)
Our good friends at CONCURRENCES will be hosting the third instalment of their global antitrust conference next Thursday, September 23rd:
The 2021 edition of Concurrences annual “Global Antitrust Hot Topics” conference will be held online, with a series of 3 webinars from Tuesday, September 21st to Thursday, September 23rd.
The third and last webinar will take place on Thursday 23 September from 3:30pm CEST / 9:30am EDT with a panel focusing on key issues for in-house counsel in global antitrust, merger enforcement and emerging regimes.
The conference will then close with a virtual reception where speakers and participants will be able to exchange their thoughts on this 9th edition.
Speakers will include:
Hanna Danwall Head of Competition Law Carlsberg
Nick Hendon Vice President Mergers & Acquisitions Olin
Following the 3rd panel, Concurrences is inviting you to the closing reception of this conference. It will allow you to exchange views with the participants and speakers involved in the different webinars of this edition.
This reception will take place via the platform Remo. During this virtual event, you will be able to speak or chat with other attendees and navigate from table to table on a virtual hotel floor.
This virtual panel will also be the opportunity for you to interact with the speakers during the live Q&A session at the end of the panel discussion.
Speakers include South African enforcer Hardin Ratshisusu, COMESA chief Willard Mwemba, the OECD’s competition expert Frederic Jenny, Mahmoud Momtaz, head of the Egyptian competition authority, Lufuno Shinwana, senior legal counsel on competition issues for Anheuser-Busch Inbev, Ntokozo Mabhena, Anglo American’s Legal Advisor, and Maureen Mwanza, head of legal for the Zambian CCPC.
Primerio partner, Andreas Stargard, will host the afternoon panel on Vertical Restraints, interviewing Okikiola Litan, Senior Counsel, Commercial and Competition Law, with Coca-Cola Hellenic Bottling Company.
The latest episode #122 of Sheppard Mullin’s popular NOTA BENE podcast features Primerio’s Andreas Stargard, exploring “Africa Q2 Check In: Economic Growth and Relevance.”
Africa continues to strive for economic growth through various trade partnerships and foreign investments, but long-standing challenges remain an impediment in certain respects. Is Twitter’s decision to open an African base in #Ghana any indication of the continent’s economic potential? We’re joined by #Africa competition and markets expert, Andreas Stargard, a co-founding senior member of Primerio Ltd., as he shares insights on Africa’s economic outlook in Q2 of 2021.
You can listen to it for free on all major ‘podcatchers,’ including here:
Our partner publication Concurrences is happy to announce that submissions are now open for the 2021 Antitrust Writing Awards.
Now in their 10th year, the Antitrust Writing Awards are given for excellent written thoughts in the field. Participation in the Awards process, whether as an author, jury member, or reader, helps highlight the best antitrust ideas of the past year.
The present Call for Nominations concerns 3 types of publications:
Best Articles: Articles published or accepted for publication in 2020, in both academic journals and professional magazines.
Best Soft Laws: Most innovative non-enforcement tools issued by competition agencies in 2020, such as guidelines, market studies, white books, etc.
Best Student Papers: Articles written or published in 2020 by current students of law or economics.
Winners will be announced at the online Awards Ceremony on Wednesday, June 30, 2021, and accept their Awards in the presence of the Board and Steering Committee Members. To see the full list of Jury members, click here.
The Antitrust Writing Awards is a joint initiative between Concurrences and the George Washington University Law School.
“Calling Out COVID Corruption: Why the pandemic requires robust Whistleblower regimes to combat corruption – lessons from abroad”
Primerio Ltd. and Constantine Cannon LLP are pleased to invite you to what promises to be a lively & informative seminar on whistle-blowing, corruption, and lessons learned from the pandemic.
With Panelists Zanele Mbuyisa – Counsel PPLAAF, John Oxenham- director Primerio, Mary Inman – partner Constantine Cannon Llc, Bill Kovacic – GWU Professor and non-executive director of the UK Competition and Markets Authority, Glynnis Breytenbach – former prosecutor for the South African National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) & a member of parliament for the Democratic Alliance (DA), Johannes Stefansson – “Fish Rot” Whistleblower.
This webinar is part of a 2 part series dedicated to whistleblowing, fraud and corruption during COVID 19: the panels will include politicians, lawyers and whistleblowers. The discussion will touch on all aspects of the importance of instilling a whistleblowing regime in corporate, government and other pertinent spheres of society.
African Antitrust & Competition Law 