Marrakech – The Competition Council of Morocco rendered 174 decisions and opinions in 2024 as part of its market regulation efforts, according to the council’s annual report.
This report covers the different fields of competence of the council, as provided for by article 166 of the Constitution, Law No. 104-12 on freedom of prices and competition, Law No. 20-13 relating to the Competition Council, as well as by the texts adopted for their application, as amended and supplemented.
The council’s main focus was on preventing economic concentrations, which made up over 93% of the total decisions made by its various deliberative bodies.
In terms of contentious referrals, the Competition Council ruled on nine cases, including one related to presumed anti-competitive concerns raised against the Centre Monétique Interbancaire (CMI) by NAPS SA company.
This particular case focused on several competition concerns identified by the council in the electronic payment market related to CMI’s behaviors and practices.
In its decision, the council made mandatory the commitments proposed by CMI and its shareholder banks to address competition concerns.
This ruling reconfigured the electronic payment market by dismantling CMI’s acquisition activity and opening the market to payment institutions wishing to access it.
Market regulation remains the primary mission
The council issued three advisory opinions, including two initiated through self-referrals regarding the competitive functioning of electricity markets and the fruit and vegetable markets.
The third opinion followed a request from the House of Representatives concerning the competitive functioning of the compound animal feed market.
In 2024, there was a clearance ratio of 90%, according to an analysis of processed cases related to economic concentration control during that period.
By the end of December, the backlog stood at 20 authorization requests, including one operation subject to an in-depth examination decision and another benefiting from a derogation to the suspensive effect of economic concentration control.
During this year, the Competition Council also initiated 12 self-referrals pursuant to the third paragraph of Article 4 of Law No. 20-13 relating to the Competition Council, as amended, supplemented, on the proposal of its Rapporteur General.
On the register of contentious self-referrals, the council also ruled on 3 cases.
Enforcement powers became increasingly effective
In 2024, the council conducted the first unannounced visit and seizure operation in its history, making effective its investigative powers provided for by the provisions of the first chapter of Title VIII of Law No. 104-12.
This visit and seizure operation, conducted in close coordination between the Competition Council and the Presidency of the Public Prosecutor’s Office, was carried out on October 22, 2024, with authorization from the King’s Prosecutor at the Court of First Instance of Casablanca, the competent jurisdiction for the concerned locations.
This operation was carried out with the assistance of judicial police officers from the National Judicial Police Brigade, duly designated for this purpose in accordance with the provisions of Article 72 of Law No. 104-12 on freedom of prices and competition, as amended and supplemented.
The report notes that in accordance with the provisions of Article 16 of Law No. 20-13 and Articles 18, 19 and 20 of Decree No. 2-14-652 of 8 Safar 1436 (December 1, 2014), which puts into effect Law No. 104-12 on freedom of prices and competition, the investigation and inquiry services conducted several procedural acts, including hearings, making requests for information, and market tests.
Specifically for the examination of economic concentration operations, more than 200 hearings were held to examine these operations and assess the competitive positioning of the parties.
These hearings involved parties to various disputes and economic concentration operations, ministerial departments overseeing the relevant sectors, regulatory bodies, and various economic operators active in the concerned sectors.
In addition, the investigation and inquiry services of the Competition Council issued more than 400 information requests for the purpose of investigating the various processed cases (market tests, requests, etc.).
Economic mergers reached significant financial levels
The control of economic concentration projects led to 155 authorized operations out of a total of 162 decisions issued by the Competition Council in 2024.
These decisions totaled financial commitments exceeding MAD 2,812 billion ($281.2 billion), with investments involving Moroccan capital amounting to more than MAD 80 billion ($8 billion).
The main issues attached to these economic concentration operations, as stated by the parties, primarily concern increased productivity, mentioned in nearly 40% of cases.
In second position, parties viewed the operations as an opportunity to improve service quality in 22% of cases, followed by market diversification in 18% of cases.
Other pursued objectives included creating synergies and complementarities (13%), supporting and financing experienced entrepreneurs with ambitious development projects and high growth potential in industrial and service sectors (12%), increasing production capacities (11%), and diversifying investment portfolios (11.2%).
Simplified procedures significantly facilitated business operations
After implementing the new simplified and accelerated procedures, 62% of the economic concentrations received during 2024 requested to benefit from these changes, while the remaining cases were processed according to normal procedures.
Notably, the overall volume of decisions issued in 2024 by the Competition Council regarding the control of economic concentration projects decreased compared to the 204 decisions rendered the previous year.
This decrease is explained by two factors. The first is the regularization operation, initiated in 2023 by the Competition Council, with the aim to allow operators to retroactively notify operations carried out without prior authorization, through a transactional settlement.
It generated a significant influx of notified and authorized concentration files in 2023 as part of the ex-post notification of these regularized operations.
The second factor concerns the revision of turnover thresholds for notification of economic concentration projects, which came into effect on May 24, 2023, directly influencing the volume of notifications.
According to initial estimates by the council, this reform, implemented by Decrees No. 2-23-273 and No. 2-23-274, was expected to lead to a significant reduction in the number of notified operations, estimated between 30% and 40%.
However, thanks to efforts to optimize deadlines and investigation processes, the Competition Council was able to process 162 operations, exceeding expectations.
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