Malawi Revamps its Antitrust Laws: Suspensory Merger Control and More

By: Editor (African Antitrust)

The Malawian government has not only revised its 26-year-old competition law but has also effectively repealed the old statutory regime under the “Competition and Fair Trading Act.” It has now enacted its replacement, the “Competition and Fair Trading Act of 2024.”

Andreas Stargard, a competition law practitioner with Primerio Intl., states, “The new regime had been in the works for several years, with input from the broader international and pan-African competition communities, both private and academic, as well as from fellow antitrust enforcers across the globe. We are pleased to see this revision effort come to fruition in the form of the CFTA 2024, which notably introduces a suspensory merger-control provision. This means companies that meet the Malawian thresholds for notifying their M&A activity must put on hold the closing of their deal until it is cleared by the authority, the CFTC.”

Stargard also points out that parties considering transactions affecting the Malawian market should note that Malawi is part of the COMESA competition-law area. “This would require firms to consider whether there is a COMESA community dimension to their transaction, possibly negating one or more domestic filings with National Competition Authorities, and instead making a ‘one-stop-shop’ notification to the CCC.” Coincidentally, the COMESA Competition Commission is also headquartered in the Malawian capital, Lilongwe, so “parties can expect extensive collaboration between the supra-national CCC enforcement teams and the CFTC’s domestic-focused antitrust lawyers,” he concludes…

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