Competition Law at Lebanon
Here’s an overview of Competition Law in Lebanon:
🇱🇧 Competition Law in Lebanon
1. Legal Framework
Lebanon’s competition law is primarily governed by Law No. 369 of 2001 on the Protection of Competition.
This law aims to promote and protect competition by prohibiting anti-competitive agreements, abuse of dominant positions, and other unfair market practices.
2. Key Provisions
Anti-competitive agreements:
Prohibits agreements between businesses that restrict competition, such as price-fixing, market-sharing, and bid-rigging.
Abuse of dominant position:
Businesses holding significant market power cannot engage in conduct that eliminates or restricts competition (e.g., predatory pricing, refusal to supply).
Mergers and acquisitions:
There is no formal pre-merger notification system under Lebanese law, but mergers leading to significant market dominance could be subject to review.
3. Enforcement Authority
Lebanon currently does not have a specialized competition authority. Enforcement is mainly through the judiciary, where the courts assess competition cases brought by the Ministry of Economy and Trade or private parties.
The Ministry of Economy and Trade plays an advisory and monitoring role.
4. Sanctions and Remedies
Violations can lead to fines, nullification of anti-competitive agreements, and damages claims by affected parties.
Criminal sanctions are generally not provided under the current competition law.
5. Challenges and Developments
Enforcement is considered limited due to the absence of a dedicated competition authority and limited judicial experience in competition law matters.
There have been ongoing discussions and calls to establish a specialized competition agency to strengthen enforcement.
Lebanon is gradually aligning its economic and trade policies with international best practices, which may lead to future reforms in competition law.
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