Saudi Arabia: Adopted Competition Law 2019 including unilateral conduct regulation

On 5 March 2019, the Council of Ministers adopted the Competition Law, which would replace the previously enforced Competition Law from 2004. The 2019 law applies broadly domestically and abroad to commercial entities that might "have an adverse effect on fair competition within the Kingdom". The previous law had a narrow scope, primarily focusing on reducing monopolistic practices, while the 2019 law expands its scope to combatting anti-competitive agreements, abuse of dominant position, and economic concentration. Article 5 of the Competition Law prohibits vertical or horizontal agreements that inter alia fix prices, reduce the free flow of goods, collude on government bids, restrict market entry from other firms, and provide services based on location or customer base. Article 6 outlines the illegal behaviour of entities considered to have a dominant position in the market, such as refusing to trade with certain companies for no specific reason, discriminating between businesses with similar contracts or making the sale of goods/services conditional on irrelevant obligations.