19 May 2026
9:00 am-9:30 am
Welcome coffee and registration
9:30 am-9:35 am
GCR opening remarks
9:35 am-9:45 am
Co-chairs’ opening remarks
Mariam Sabet
Partner, Al Tamimi & Company
Sabra Ferhat
Counsel, Clifford Chance
9:45 am-10:15 am
Keynote address
H.E. Abdulla Bin Touq Al Marri
Cabinet Member & Minister of Economy and Tourism, United Arab Emirates Ministry of Economy & Tourism
10:15 am-11:15 am
Anticompetitive or efficient? Assessing vertical arrangements in practice
- Understanding exemptions: how are they interpreted, including vertical restraints in emerging industries
- Assessing anticompetitive agreements in the vertical context
- Key recent guidelines from competition authorities
11:15 am-11:45 am
Networking break
11:45 am-12:45 pm
MENA’s balancing act: navigating global FDI pressures and opportunities
- FDI screening across borders: essential updates from the EU, UK, Canada and CFIUS
- Practical approaches to managing strategic risks
- Balancing openness and oversight: how MENA incentives align with global security pressures
Dimitri Slobodenjuk
Partner, Clifford Chance
Jason Gudofsky
Partner, McCarthy Tétrault
12:45 pm-1:45 pm
Networking lunch
1:45 pm-2:15 pm
Fireside chat
2:15 pm-3:15 pm
Regulators’ roundtable
Agency heads, commissioners and other senior officials from competition authorities in the MENA region will provide an update on recent developments in antitrust policy, casework and legislation, while reflecting on the current challenges they face.
3:15 pm-3:45 pm
Coffee break
3:45 pm-4:45 pm
Merger control in focus
- Key updates from across the region: UAE’s revised merger control regime, Saudi notification thresholds, and more
- Preparing for increased scrutiny of the ‘local nexus’
- Evolving enforcement: addressing theories of harm in digital markets
Firas El Samad
Partner, Zulficar & Partners
4:45 pm-4:55 pm
Co-chairs’ closing remarks
Mariam Sabet
Partner, Al Tamimi & Company
Sabra Ferhat
Counsel, Clifford Chance
4:55 pm-5:00 pm
GCR closing remarks
