Saudi Arabia: Entry into force with grace period of Telecommunications and Information Technology Law including unilateral conduct regulation

On 1 June 2022, the Telecommunications and Information Technology Law entered into force by Royal Decree M/106. The law contains competition obligations concerning unilateral conduct. Any service provider with a dominant share in the market is prohibited from abusing its position. Service providers are defined as any "licensee, registrant, or permittee" that provides services relating to telecommunication or IT. This definition includes content platforms as well. A dominant service provider is one that covers at least 40% of the relevant markets. If approved by the CITC, the dominant service provider is required to meet the requests of other service providers concerning "interconnection or access on fair terms". Finally, collusion between service providers to reduce competition is also a violation of this law.