According to Decision 90 issued on August 31, 2022, supplementing the Council’s Decision 68 dated June 24, 2022 relating to certain economic merger operations carried out and not notified to the Council, companies that have violated the obligation to notify economic concentration operations but have not yet achieved an annual turnover, are fined a lump-sum of MAD 500,000.

The decision was deliberated in plenary by the Council in accordance with the provisions of Article 14 of Law 20-13 relating to the Competition Council.

In accordance with Article 13 of Law 104-12, the obligation to notify is borne by the natural or legal persons who control the whole or part of the company, says the Council, noting that in case of merger or shared enterprise, all persons concerned must make the notification jointly.

Regarding criteria, the Council emphasizes that the non-notified economic concentration operations concerned must be carried out before December 31, 2021 and that the declaration of the concentration must be made by the parties involved in the mentioned operations by December 31, 2022.

Likewise, the aforementioned declaration must be accompanied by a full notification of the concentration process according to the procedure specified in Law 12-104 and that the parties involved explicitly accept this conciliation procedure by means of a notification letter, by which they accept the non-contestation of this procedure and the decision imposing the sanction.

The Council also states that undeclared economic concentrations that are subject to a current investigation procedure by the Council are excluded from this procedure.

Source: Agency Morocaine De Presse