Legal Update – 11 August 2025
EAC Operationalizes Cross Border Merger Control and Notifications
The East African Community Competition Authority (the Authority) has issued a formal notice announcing that, effectively from 1 November 2025, it will begin receiving notifications of mergers and acquisitions with cross border effects under the East African Community Competition Act, 2006 (the Act). This is a significant regulatory milestone for business operating the East African Community (the EAC) as it creates a single regional notification point for qualifying transactions across the EAC Partner States, namely Burundi, Kenya, Tanzania, Rwanda, South Sudan, Democratic Republic of Congo, Rwanda, Somalia, and Uganda.
The new system introduces mandatory notification and approval for qualifying mergers and acquisitions that have regional impact. A transaction must be notified to the Authority if the combined turnover or asset value of the merging parties in the EAC is USD 35 million or more, and at least two of the undertakings involved have combined turnover or assets of USD 20 million or more. It is worth noting that, this requirement does not apply where each party generates at least two-thirds of its turnover or holds at least two-thirds of its assets within a single partner state.
The Notice provides that, once a notification of a merger/acquisition with cross border effect is made to the Authority, there is no need to notify the same to the national competition authorities. However, the Notice emphasizes that any merger proceedings that had commenced or are pending before a national competition authority prior to this Notice shall be finalized under those jurisdictions.
Furthermore, the filling process will require submission of the prescribed notification form accompanied by the relevant transaction documents and the applicable fee. The Authority has published a fee schedule for merger notification. The schedule provides that: (i) mergers valued between USD 35-50 million will attract a filling fee of USD 45,000; (ii) mergers valued between USD 50-100 million will be charged a fee of USD 70,000; and (iii) mergers exceeding USD 100 million will pay a fee of USD 100,000.
The operationalization of the Authority is expected to catalyse the cross-border businesses within the EAC and ease the burden of businesses to notify in each individual authority in the EAC Partner States. This Notice is good news for conglomerates operating within the EAC region.
To read the Notice click here